“One of the best of the best”: Rita Bolt Barker ’01

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Rita Bolt Barker was the first woman elected Clemson University student body president; her leadership verve has continued to grow. She has recently been described as “one of the best of the best” by the American Bar Association when they named her as one of only 12 lawyers across the country to receive the prestigious Distinguished Environmental Advocacy Award. The award recognizes the contributions of lawyers to the development of law, policy and programs in the areas of energy and the environment.
Bolt Barker double majored in political science, and speech and communications at Clemson. She received her law degree from Harvard Law School. Her work as an environmental lawyer with the Greenville law firm Wyche includes advising clients on federal and state environmental laws. She also advises businesses on assessing environmental risks and incentives associated with corporate transactions, including mergers, acquisitions and real estate deals, including brownfield redevelopment.
Bolt Barker has been listed in Best Lawyers in America and as a “Rising Star” by South Carolina Super Lawyers. She was also named “Legal Elite” and one of the Upstate’s “Best and Brightest Under 35” by Greenville Business Magazine.
Chair of the board of directors for Greenville Forward, Bolt Barker also serves as vice president of the board of directors for the Friends of the Reedy River and is a member of the City of Greenville’s Green Ribbon Advisory Committee and Brownfield Task Force. She teaches a course on environmental law and conservation advocacy at Furman University.

Bangs™ to ‘help’: Hannah C. Davis ’09

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You can help satisfy your social conscience with a pair of shoes, thanks to the efforts of Hannah Davis.
As founder and president of Bangs™, a retail shoe line, Davis has shown how a for-profit can partner with nonprofits to create positive change. Bangs™ partners with nonprofits whose projects focus on self-reliability and empowerment through education and cultural understanding, turning away from handout methodology.
She pairs each of her four different styles of shoes — each a different color — with causes that directly address world issues. Buy a blue pair of shoes and clean water initiatives are helped; red goes toward disaster relief efforts; khaki helps fight world hunger; and green shoes’ proceeds fund educational projects.
Davis graduated with a degree in political science with a minor in Mandarin. She traveled in China for six weeks during a study abroad program and fell in love with the country. After graduation, Davis taught English for a year in Jiangsu Province.
Inspiration for the design of Bangs™ shoes was found in the olive green, army-style shoes worn by thousands of construction and field workers across China. Davis developed the ideology behind the Bangs™ brand to connect people to a philosophy she was passionate about. In fact the name “Bangs” came from the Mandarin character for the word “help,” which phonetically is spelled b-a-n-g.
One of the company’s marketing strategies is University Outreach. Bangs™ ambassadors in 20 universities in the Southeast participate to raise awareness of the social enterprise. Student Leah Esposito is the Clemson Bangs Team Leader.
More about Bangs and its products is at www.bangsshoes.com.
To hear more about Davis’s story, check out her TED X talk.

 

Summer offerings span the state for students K–12

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Summer programs


Opportunities abound this summer at Clemson for young people ranging from kindergarteners to high school seniors. An extensive program lineup matches just about every interest imaginable, from athletic camps and rigorous academic enrichment programs on campus to an array of recreational summer camps at sites around the state.
Clemson’s legacy of service to pre-collegiate youth audiences spans beyond a century, when the first 4-H club programs were organized. It’s a legacy that has evolved with the times, and with consistent emphasis on providing the most physically and emotionally safe environments possible for program participants and facilitators.
In 2008, before the Penn State tragedies rocked the nation, President James Barker commissioned a summer programs task force that recommended the development of a centralized system to oversee the operation of youth programs. Then in 2011, the Pre-collegiate Programs Office (PcPO) was created. The PcPO coordinates with faculty and staff to develop and plan all phases of youth program operations, then monitors to ensure they meet the University’s operating standards. These policies include background checks for all individuals working or volunteering to supervise youth, staff training protocols and emergency procedures, and a variety of other areas of risk management such as staff-to-student ratios, housing and transportation.
In 2013, the PcPO expects to support the operation of more than 1,000 youth programs, on and off campus, that will serve an estimated 45,000 young people.For a list of programs and registration information, visit clemson.edu/aspire. Or, contact Jacob Repokis, assistant director, Pre-Collegiate Programs Office, at wrepoki@clemson.edu or 864-656-5535.

University/military partnership benefits both

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Field Scenario

Field Scenario


Units such as the U.S. Navy Reserve medical team that MaryBeth Hendricks ’95, M ’96 helps lead are the first responders for injured service men and women on the field of battle. When Hendricks’ team began envisioning what kind of training would provide the best preparation, what came to mind was the kind of training she received at Clemson, and her experience in the School of Nursing’s Clinical Lab and Resource Center. The center’s state-of-the-art learning environment closely simulates real-life experiences using technologically advanced mannequins that can be programmed to realistically mimic the symptoms of almost any health problem.
Hendricks, a nurse practitioner who received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Clemson, and her team worked with assistant professor Tracy Fasolino to design a five-hour simulation session that, with the assistance of a number of nursing faculty, could be completed during scheduled drill weekends. The training took place in the fall, with scenarios ranging from a traumatic amputation to a cardiac event.
Collaboration with the military is nothing new for Clemson. Faculty from the Eugene T. Moore School of Education have been working with the S.C. Army National Guard in a decade-long partnership that has provided a convenient high-tech facility for weekend Guard training and education. The facility, which includes two-way interactive videoconferencing capabilities, also is used for University programs and classes, as well as for training more than 3,500 teachers in the statewide Reading Recovery Program that improves children’s literacy skills.

Clemson professor working to reduce deaths among infants with heart condition

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Richard Figliola

Approximately 1,500 babies are born each year in the U.S. with an abnormal single ventricle heart condition. The corrective process, known as the Fontan circulation, involves three stages of surgery during the first few years of life to enable the heart to function with only one ventricle. The specific corrective process depends on several factors, including the heart’s development as the child grows, making it difficult for doctors to monitor progress and predict the next stage of treatment or the long-term effect of such treatments. The mortality rate is high due to the complexity of the surgery and a physician’s skill-set/experience needed to succeed.

Richard Figliola, professor of mechanical engineering and bioengineering, is working to reduce this high mortality rate and improve available information used in the surgical decision made by physicians.

He and a team of physicians and engineering researchers spanning two continents have been awarded a $6 million award from the Leducq Foundation to develop 3-D modeling of the three surgical stages of single ventricle physiology. These models, which will be shared on a global network, will provide surgeons various predictive tools that they can use for better clinical bedside decisions.

Clemson bestows nation’s first Ph.D. in automotive engineering

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At Clemson’s December graduation ceremonies, Ala Oattawi made history as the first woman in the country to earn a Ph.D. in automotive engineering. Her work involves concept cars and establishing a scientific approach for the design of structural origami in folded sheet metal in an effort to improve automobile efficiency and functionality.

Meng honored by Notre Dame for recent book

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Shattered Spaces

Shattered Spaces


The University of Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute for European Studies has awarded Michael Meng, assistant professor of history, the 2013 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies for his book, Shattered Spaces: Encountering Jewish Ruins in Postwar Germany and Poland, published by Harvard University Press (2011). The $10,000 prize is presented annually to the author of the best book in European studies that transcends a focus on any one country, state or people.

Collaborating to solve the world’s problems

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Life Sciences building

Facing Cherry Road, just adjacent to the P&A Building, sits the new Life Sciences facility where microbiology, biochemistry, food safety and genetics researchers collaborate in state-of-the-art laboratories to find solutions to the world’s problems. Designed to be highly energy efficient, the 100,000-square-foot facility is targeted to achieve LEED gold status.
Dedicated on Feb. 8, the facility includes the Leica Microsystems Imaging Suite, housed in a 2,400-square-foot laboratory on the ground floor, which will be part of the Clemson Light Imaging Facility used by more than 60 principal investigator laboratories and five businesses. The support of Leica Microsystems, a world leader in microscopy, camera and software solutions for imaging and analysis of macro-, micro- and nanostructures, ensures that the very latest, state-of-the-art equipment will be available for use and demonstration.

Roth honored by Texas A&M

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Aleda Roth, the distinguished Burlington Industries Professor of Supply Chain Management in Clemson’s College of Business and Behavioral Science, was named Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study Faculty Fellow at its inaugural class gathering in College Station. The only female scholar in the class, she joins eminent researchers who include a Nobel Laureate, members of the National Academies of Engineering and of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society in England.

Sherrill presented Class of 1939 Award for Excellence

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Windsor Westbrook Sherrill


Professor of public health sciences Windsor Westbrook Sherrill may be younger than the rest of the Class of 1939, but as the 2012 recipient of the Class of 1939 Award for Excellence, she is now an honorary member of the class. The award is presented annually to one distinguished member of the faculty whose outstanding contributions for a five-year period have been judged by his or her peers to represent the highest achievement of service to the University, the student body and the larger community.
Sherrill has taught courses in health-care management, health-care systems, health-care finance, health-services research, honors and Creative Inquiry. Her research, which spans epidemiology, health services administration, health education and behavioral science, has brought in more than $1.5 million in grants and has been published in numerous refereed publications, five book chapters, professional reports and scholarly presentations.

Public health sciences professor Rachel Mayo described Sherrill as “a vital research partner of the University, unafraid to take risks, and a visionary.”

Sherrill recently was asked to lead the health-research collaborative between Clemson University and the Institute for the Advancement of Healthcare of the Greenville Hospital System.