True Blue Travel Alumni Association Representatives

Panama Canal (January 20–31, 2008)

Professor Guy Meadows

Upon graduation from Purdue University in 1977, Guy Meadows joined the faculty of the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering, where he is currently Professor of Applied Ocean Physics and Director of the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories. His primary goal, to blend scientific understanding and technological advancements into environmentally sound engineering solutions for the marine environment, has led to a distinguished career of teaching, research, and service.

Professor Meadows has received numerous awards for outstanding teaching, reflecting his ability to enlighten and inspire students, and currently reaches over 400 first-year engineering students through his course entitled “The Engineering Profession.” In addition, his teaching reaches beyond the university setting to less formal environments, and includes three nationally televised documentaries for the History Channel and the Discovery Channel.

His primary research interests are in geophysical fluid dynamics with emphasis on environmental forecasting and full-scale experimental hydrodynamics. In this arena, he has influenced policy and explored societal impacts of environmental forecasting for coastal management, recreational health and safety, and regional climate change.

With such expertise and deliberate goals, he is often sought out by local and regional organizations in an advisory and instructional capacity. His service record, including several commendations and awards, reflects his commitment to the concept that research and teaching cannot stop at the campus boundary, but must be delivered into the hands of those who make decisions that affect our global society.

Dr. Lorelle Meadows

Dr. Lorelle Meadows received her Ph.D. in the area of Applied Ocean Physics through the department of Atmospheric Oceanic and Space Science at the University of Michigan, College of Engineering.  Until recently, she served as a research faculty member of the department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering (NAME).  Through her tenure in the NAME department, she became an integral and managing member of the department’s Ocean Engineering Laboratory, and more recently the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories.  Her main research experience and interests lie in the development of understanding of the influence of physical processes on the nearshore zone.  Most of this work has focused on the Great Lakes and associated larger inland water bodies, with some work on ocean coastal regions as well.  Many of the research projects in which she has been involved host an interdisciplinary approach with an overall objective of improving ecosystem understanding, health and management, and provide a mechanism by which to bring research expertise into the classroom.

Dr. Meadows has taught upper level environmental ocean dynamics courses as well as the college’s Introduction to Engineering course which combines a team project with technical communication material, environmental consciousness and ethics.  Her most recently contribution to this course has been the development and implementation of a service-learning curriculum and the inception of an engineering education research program to explore the service-learning pedagogy in engineering.

Dr. Meadows recently accepted the position of Managing Director of Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan.  In this role within the college, she has responsibility for the development of programs to address the challenges and opportunities associated with the development of a vibrant and diverse engineering community at Michigan.  In this role, she has been instrumental in the design and implementation of faculty development programs, dual degree and transfer student initiatives, and K-12 outreach development, and serves as the coordinating member of the college’s Diversity and Outreach Council.

From Machu Picchu to the Galapagos Islands (January 27 – February 9, 2008)

David P. Mindell, PHD Professor

David P. Mindell is Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Curator of Birds at the University of Michigan. He served as Director of the Museum of Zoology from 2002-2005 and as Director of the Herbarium from 2003-2005.

His primary long-term research interest is in the molecular phylogenetics and evolution of the orders and families of birds. Specific current research projects with colleagues concern using DNA sequences to understand genealogical relationships among species of falcons, hawks, eagles, Old World vultures and owls; to determine the genetic distinctiveness and conservation status of the harpy eagle, Gyps vultures, and orange-breasted falcon; to elucidate the evolution of small genome sizes in birds; and the coevolution of birds and retroviruses. Research in his laboratory has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and The Peregrine Fund.

He was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in 2006-2007, and has held Visiting Professorships at the University of Konstanz in Germany (2000) and the Institute of Statistical Mathematics in Tokyo, Japan (1998). He joined the UM faculty in 1994. During 1989 to 1994 he was a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cincinnati. He held Postdoctoral Research Fellowships at Harvard University in 1987-1988 and at Tel Aviv University in 1986. He received his Ph.D. in Biology in 1986 from Brigham Young University. He and his wife Margaret, also a biologist, have two children, one of whom is a junior at the University of Michigan majoring in philosophy and German.

His recent book "The Evolving World: Evolution in Everyday Life" (Harvard University Press, 2006) explores the many applications of evolution to everyday life. Knowledge of evolution is applied in domestication of wild species for agriculture; in managing our exposure to pathogens to prevent or control epidemics; in promoting human health; in fostering the diversity of species which safeguard functional ecosystems; in the pursuit of justice within the legal system; and in promoting scientific discovery through education and research. The book seeks to show that understanding and application of evolutionary science has become indispensable in modern societies.

History and Gardens of the Caribbean (February 1-8, 2008)

Esrold Nurse
Assistant Dean, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Since 1995, Esrold Nurse has held the position of Assistant Dean in the Office of Student Academic Affairs, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, at the University of Michigan.

In his capacity as Assistant Dean for Student Academic Affairs, Dr. Nurse provides leadership and administrative oversight for all program activities, including administration of the Code of Student Academic Conduct, the delivery and evaluation of services, development and implementing of new programs and activities, hiring, management and training of staff, management of budget, and development and implementation administrative procedures and policies.  He is responsible also for structuring effective relationships with academic department and administrative units in LS&A and across the campus. Dr. Nurse represents the Dean of the College and the Office of LS&A Student Academic Affairs to internal and external constituencies.  Along with the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Graduate Education, the Assistant Dean advises the Dean on matters related to the undergraduate experience of LS&A students.

Dr. Nurse is a native of Trinidad and Tobago. He has traveled widely in the Caribbean and is an avid cricket and soccer fan. In 1998, he co-directed the University of Michigan Study Abroad program in London, England and taught a class: Caribbean Immigrants in Modern British Society. This course traced the movement of immigrants from several Caribbean countries to Britain, discussed the difficulty in assimilation and acceptance in Britain and examined the impact on Modern British Society.  

Dr. Nurse received his Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994; MA in Educational Leadership from Western Michigan University in 1978; and Bachelor of Science in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 1976. Before coming to Michigan in 1995, he was Associate Director of Undergraduate Admission at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Deputy Associate/Assistant Dean for Student Academic Affairs in the College of Letters and Science.

Expedition to Antarctica February 1-16, 2008

Knute J. Nadelhoffer, PhD
Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Director, University of Michigan Biological Station

Dr. Knute Nadelhoffer is Director of the University of Michigan Biological Station in Pellston and Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983 and was a post-doctoral research at the Ecosystems Center of Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He held positions as Assistant, Associate and Senior Scientist at the MBL’s Ecosystems Center through 2002. Dr. Nadelhoffer spent a year (1996-97) as a Fulbright Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of Water Research (Oslo) and the Norwegian Institute of Forest Research (Ås) integrating North American and European studies of nitrogen deposition affects on forests. He served as Director of the Ecosystem Studies Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2002-2003. He moved to Michigan in June 2003 to assume his current positions of Professor at UM and Director of the UM Biological Station.

Dr. Nadelhoffer is an ecologist who studies factors controlling ecosystem characteristics, including nutrient cycling, water use, species composition, plant growth and organic matter decomposition. He conducts research projects in temperate forests and arctic tundra where he combines field experiments and modeling studies to predict how ecosystems respond to climate change, air pollution and physical disturbances.

He has authored or co-authored 99 research papers and book chapters, and numerous reports. He is Past-President of the Association of Ecosystem Research Centers (AERC at http://www.ecosystemresearch.org/), was a member of the Ecosystem Interagency Working Group while serving as an NSF Program Officer, and was a co-author of The Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program: Ecosystems (2003). He is also a member of the NEON National Network Design Committee, which is engaged in planning for the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON at www.neoninc.org).

Tahiti and French Polynesia (March 16-26, 2008)

Jerry Sigler, Sr. Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Janice Sigler, Vice President of Operations
Alumni Association of the University of Michigan

Jerry is the senior vice president and chief financial officer of the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan.  A 1983 graduate of the U-M Business School, Jerry spent 6 years with the Detroit office of the public accounting firm Ernst & Young prior to joining the Association staff in 1989.  He has been with AAUM for the last 18 years and currently oversees areas of new product development, events, athletic travel, career services, Michigania, customer relations, facilities, the business office, reunions and marketing and communications.

Janice is the vice president of operations at the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan.  She received her undergraduate degree in communications from the University of Michigan in 1991.  She has been a part of the Association's staff for 14 years.  Janice currently oversees the areas of travel, membership and technology.

Jerry and Janice have three children, Laura (18), Dan (15) and Nate (12).  Laura is currently a freshman at U-M. 

They are truly a MICHIGAN family!

China, Tibet & Yangtze River 04.03.08

Dr. Brian P. Coppola
Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Professor of Chemistry
Associate Chair, Chemistry Department
Co-Director, IDEA Institute

After graduating with a doctorate in 1984 from UW-Madison, Brian P. Coppola joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. In 1986, he moved to Ann Arbor as a lecturer. His 1996 tenure case is noteworthy in its establishing a new policy that LSA departments could now have professorial positions that focused on teaching and learning in the discipline. He is a current Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, professor of chemistry, and associate chair of the chemistry department. He also is the co-director of the IDEA Institute, a joint effort between LSA and the School of Education to improve science and mathematics education through improving the preparation of future teachers and faculty members.

Professor Coppola has received numerous awards and recognitions for his contributions to education. Since 2001, his work has broadened its reach to include China and Indonesia. His collaborations in China, in particular, are bearing important results for the global education of students in both countries. In 2007, he co-directed the first bilateral exchange of undergraduate research students in the sciences between the United States and China. In 2008-09, UM science students will begin to have study abroad opportunities at Peking University (PKU). Coppola and his colleagues are also developing a novel program for students at UM and PKU to work on collaborative project while enrolled in parallel, cooperating courses located on both campuses.

In response to the question, Why China?, Professor Coppola replies: “In 2001, in my first report from my first trip, I wrote: ‘Everything you believe about China is wrong.’ This is no less true today. There has never been any set of changes so profound, so massive, and so fast, as the development that is going on there. I agree with those who remark that China was perhaps the preeminent world power for 2500 years, and simply did not catch the wave of industrialization until now. Europe had its century of exclusive dominance, then the US did. If we do not think about how we partner with China to our mutual benefit, then I see no reason to believe that the base of power is not shifting once again. Education, in particular, provides an incredible platform for international collaboration and understanding.”

Holland and Belgium (April 11-19, 2008)

Matt Biro
Associate Professor, Modern and Contemporary Art

Matt Biro is Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Michigan, where he is also the Associate Chair of his department. An expert on modern and contemporary art, he is the author of Anselm Kiefer and the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger (Cambridge University Press, 1998) as well as numerous articles on art, aesthetics, and popular culture. He also writes art criticism for Contemporary magazine in London; and he is currently finishing a new book on the image of the cyborg in Dada art in Berlin in the 1920s.

Matt received degrees from Swarthmore College, the Pennsylvania State University, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook and awards and fellowships from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the University of Michigan, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). He also once turned down a yearlong fellowship to Harvard University – something that he now admits was a big mistake. Matt has taught at the University of Michigan for the past fourteen years, where he presents lectures and seminars on twentieth century art, film, and photography.

Matt’s interest in Holland stems from his specialization in German art and philosophy. Having lived in Germany for more than two years, he made numerous trips to the Netherlands on business as well as pleasure. He considers Amsterdam to be one of his favorite cities. In addition to travel, Matt’s interests include photography and video. He is currently working as an actor and an occasional cameraman on The Saranay Motel, a film by Elliott Earls, the Head of Two-Dimensional Design at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Maize and Blue on Broadway (May 8-11, 2008)

Brent Wagner Associate Professor and Chair of Musical Theatre

Professor Wagner is Chair of the Musical Theatre Department. Before joining the Michigan faculty in 1984 he taught at Syracuse University. He has directed musicals and revues throughout North America, from off-Broadway in New York to the Banff Center in Alberta, Canada. He has collaborated with Sheldon Harnick on numerous projects, including a new opera at the O'Neill Theater Center, as well as the world premiere of A Wonderful Life (music by Joe Raposo), and his recent musical Dragons, both of which were staged at the University of Michigan.

Mr. Wagner recently held an Arthur Thurnau Professorship, an award for outstanding instruction at the undergraduate level. Among many responsibilities, Mr. Wagner also directs the senior showcase, presented annually in New York City.

Waterway of Tsars (June 13 – 27, 2008)

Dr. Gregory Poggi
Chair Department of Theatre & Drama and Professor of Theatre

Dr. Gregory Poggi has more than 20 years of experience successfully leading resident professional theatres in the United States and Canada. He is a founder of the Indiana Repertory Theatre, Indianapolis, which is now in its 35th season. He served as managing director of the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg, one of Canada's premier companies, and was founding chairman of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT), Toronto. He next became artistic and producing director of the Philadelphia Drama Guild at the Annenberg Center of the University of Pennsylvania. His production history spans more than 120 works, ranging from Shakespeare, Ibsen, Miller, Hansberry and Beckett to new works and several American premieres, such as Graham Greene and Dennis Canaan's The Power and the Glory, and Michael Frayn's Clouds.

Over the years, Dr. Poggi collaborated with many Tony Award winners including actors Len Cariou, Boyd Gaines, Randy Graff and Patricia Elliott; directors Jerry Zaks and Vivian Matalon; and designers Jess Goldstein and Neil Peter Jampolis.

Dr. Poggi also is former chair of the Division of Arts Administration in the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University, Dallas for 15 years, a program which awards both an M.A. in Arts Administration and an M.B.A. He also chaired three other divisions; theatre, dance and corporate communications and public affairs. While at SMU, Dr. Poggi served as artistic consultant to the Dallas Theater Center during their search for a new artistic director.

The anticipated lecture topics for the Waterways of the Tsars trip are “Stanislavski and His Innovations in Acting" and “The Historic Development of Russian Drama” Professor Poggi joined the Alumni Association in 2007 as a lecturer on the Shaw and Stratford theatre program.

Education
B.A. (English Literature & Speech and Theater), Iona College
M.A. (Rhetoric and Theater), Indiana University
PhD (Dramatic Literature, Theory and Criticism), Indiana University
Additional studies, Oxford University and the University of London

Dalmatian Coast (May 27-June 4, 2008)

Dr. Robert L. Frost II
Associate Professor, Information Studies

Bob Frost received his PhD in Modern European History from the University of Wisconsin in 1983, and taught and researched in French and European history until shifting to Information Studies in 2000. He has published on a number of topics, ranging from the inundation of an Alpine village by a hydroelectric project, to the use of home appliances in France, to the business of distributing recoded music, and finally, to the value of ambiguity in global organizations.

Professor Frost has traveled widely in Europe both in research/scholarship and in cultural heritage tourism. He has participated in a number of organized travel opportunities in the Aegean and Adriatic regions, addressing Balkan Wars, Medieval trade, and systems of iconography.

Professor Frost is proud to continue his family’s connection to the University of Michigan, started in the 1920s by his great-grandfather and poet Robert Frost.

Baltic Sea & Norwegian Fjords (June 15-27, 2008)

Dr. Katherine Terrell
Professor of Business Economics, Corporate Strategy and International Business, Stephen M. Ross School of Business & Professor of Public Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy 
 
Professor Terrell joined the Business Economics faculty and Public Policy faculty at the University of Michigan in 1996, after nine years at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, when she also was a visiting fellow at CORE in Belgium and at CERGE-EI in the Czech Republic. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1984.

Prof. Terrell’s research examines the effects of globalization on workers and firms in emerging markets, with emphasis on Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe where the transition to the global market has been especially marked. One stream addresses the role labor regulations and policy play in facilitating/hindering the reallocation of labor from the old to the new economy, while protecting affected workers. She is especially interested in the impact that globalization has had on women and the distribution of income in these regions. Another stream focuses on the impact of foreign direct investment on domestic firms and economic growth in emerging markets. Her research has been published widely in academic journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Comparative Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, and World Development. See for example her 2006 publication with Ina Ganguli, “Institutions, Markets and Men’s and Women’s Wage Inequality: Evidence from Ukraine,” Journal of Comparative Economics, 34(2):200-227.

Dr. Terrell teaches courses at the graduate level in both the Ross School of Business and the Ford School of Public Policy, including Labor Markets in a Global Economy, Business Strategy in Latin America, Economic Development Policy, and Foreign Direct Investment. She is the advisor of the International Business – Business Economics Ph.D. Program at the Ross School. Dr. Terrell is a Research Fellow at IZA (Bonn,), a Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London), and a Visiting Researcher at the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education (Prague).

Baltic Sea & Norwegian Fjords (June 15-27, 2008)

Artemis Leontis
Associate Professor of Modern Greek, University of Michigan

Born in Midland, Michigan, Artemis Leontis earned a BA from Oberlin College in Religious Studies and Studio Art and a PhD from Ohio State in Comparative Studies specializing in ancient and Modern Greek literature. She did post-graduate work at the University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Professor Leontis has been teaching at U-M since 1999. She is Associate Professor of Modern Greek and coordinator of the Greek language program. Her courses include Travels to Greece, Contemporary Greek Culture, and Athens Present and Past. As part of her Athens course, she leads a two-week undergraduate study tour to Athens in the spring. She encourages study abroad, especially when it is integrated in the curriculum of the home institution. "Faculty in literature and language mostly trade in words. In the classroom we do our best to illustrate our lectures; but mostly we talk, and sometimes talking isn't enough. For our students, nothing can bring Greece to life quite like a trip to Greece."

Her research interests lie in ancient and modern Greece and in the relationship of the modern world to Greece. She was curator of the exhibit at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, "Cavafy's World," in 2002, which presented the modern Alexandrian poet C.P. Cavafy's life and work in relation to ancient artifacts that stirred his imagination. She has published “Topographies of Hellenism”, “Greece, A Traveler’s Literary Companion”, and “What These Ithakas Mean…Readings in Cavafy”. She is completing a reference book on the culture and customs of Greece. She is now writing an intellectual biography of Eva Palmer Sikelianos, an American composer, choreographer and director of ancient Greek drama who lived and worked in Greece.

Professor Leontis and her husband, Vassilis Lambropoulos, have a daughter, Daphne, a U-M undergraduate studying anthropology and biology.