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April 16, 2012
Like many of his students, Brent Wagner fell in love with theatre music at a young age. “I really loved the combination of text and music in the telling of a story, because music speaks to our emotions and the words carry the meaning,” he says. ”The combination, I found, was very powerful.” Photo by…
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April 9, 2012
Margaret Nowak used to often meet with a chemotherapy patient who loved to paint using watercolors in the infusion room of the Comprehensive Cancer Center The patient had requested that Nowak, an art therapist, come sit with her before receiving treatment. “She told me that she was always so scared before getting her chemo, and…
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April 2, 2012
Photo by Austin Thomason, U-M Photo Services. When Robert Adams’ and Dawn Gilpin’s daughter Celeste was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and began using a powered wheelchair, Adams had an idea. He wanted to invent a special ramp that would foster inclusion for disabled and non-disabled people. Adams is assistant professor of architecture at Taubman College…
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March 26, 2012
Whether it’s building radios in his free time or flying a small airplane around the state of Michigan, Dave Boprie’s personal interests have enhanced his career. An amateur pilot and self-described “radio enthusiast,” Boprie, a senior electronics technician at the Space Physics Research Laboratory on North Campus, uses his skills to build components for space…
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March 19, 2012
Ken Mikolowski and his wife Ann in 1969 set out to print the “best of the best” in art and poetry. They bought a 1,500-pound letterpress and set it up in the basement of their home. Together, they started The Alternative Press, and for 30 years printed some of the finest artists in both the…
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March 12, 2012
Nicole Green-Valentine knows the key to being a good official. “You need field presence. You need to be confident in yourself, confident that you know the rules and know how to apply them, and that you communicate well with the players, coaches, parents your partner officials,” says Green-Valentine, assistant director in the Department of Recreational…
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March 5, 2012
When Mike Shriberg was offered his current position of education director at the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute in 2010, he says the timing was just right, given the leverage and potential the university has to impact environmental and sustainability issues. “This university is at a critical moment in terms of sustainability. The commitment that (President)…
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February 20, 2012
Matt Traynor knows a great deal about wheelchairs and the people who rely on them. As a certified rehab technology supplier for the Wheelchair Seating Service of the U-M Health System Home Care Services Division, Traynor spends his days working with patients who need mobility assistance. And while Traynor does not take his work home…
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February 13, 2012
Photo by Scott Soderberg, U-M Photo Services. Vivek Sankaran says having children of his own has made him realize the extra care that must go into making tough decisions about whether a child in foster care should be reunited with parents. “I’ve realized how serious it is to take a kid away from a parent…
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February 6, 2012
A third-generation storyteller, Elizabeth James usually tells stories that have been passed down to her by her mother and grandmother — stories of different times and of other cultures. Photo by Eric Bronson, U-M Photo Services. James, a program associate in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS), now has some stories of her…
