N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 4 Alumni News
Editors: Jeanne Johnson, Philip Tang, A&S '95 | |
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Kevin Keating, SAIS '02 Kevin Keating was just a suburban Chicago kid in 1973 when the Chicago Sun Times featured him in a column. Keating had been hanging around outside a hotel hoping to nab some New York Mets autographs, when writer Bob Greene approached him. Keating told the reporter that his mother knew he was cutting school — in fact, as a reward for good grades, she had written a note to his school claiming he was sick. "The next thing I knew," Keating says, "there was a big photograph of me in the paper and an article with the headline, 'Waiting for a Sign.'"
The article almost got him suspended, but the publicity
turned Keating from a guy with a curious hobby into a minor
celebrity. "Suddenly, it was cool to be me," says Keating.
"That sanctified it for me, and marked the start of my
serious collecting." |
Taking his own advice, Keating collects what he
loves. Photo by Sam Kittner |
Over the next couple of decades, Keating received so many
"signs" that, in 1992, he started his own business, Quality
Autographs and Memorabilia of Virginia, buying and selling
sports collectibles. By 1999, Keating was able to quit
working in pharmaceutical sales management to operate his
business full time, mostly via direct mail. "I used to buy from auctions and dealers, and it got to the point where I realized I knew as much or more than they did," Keating says. "Also, I have a near photographic memory, and being able to retain the memory of real autographs helps me to distinguish the real ones from the fakes." As Keating's business took off, radio and television shows called on him to talk about collecting. He also worked with the F.B.I. to identify forgers, and he has been called on to provide expert testimony on forgery. In 2001, Keating, a West Point graduate and former Army infantry officer, decided to go back to school and enrolled in Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. "I had specialized in China while at West Point, and I had always been fascinated by international relations, politics, and the Far East," says Keating, who lived in Japan for two years when he was a child. "While my sports autograph business is fun and has been lucrative," he says, "it is in many ways an extension of what I was doing when I was 10 and offers me no intellectual challenge. I wanted to seek out other pursuits." At SAIS, the sought-after intellectual intensity, combined with the politically charged, post-9/11 atmosphere, instilled in him a desire to become politically proactive. In 2002, Keating and two others launched GradPAC, a political action committee that supports graduates of the five service academies who run for national office and demonstrate a commitment to national security issues. In 2004, Keating founded the Veterans for National Security Foundation to help veterans of all backgrounds who seek election to public office. But Keating hasn't lost his love of collecting, and his collection continues to grow. Keating's business specializes in vintage baseball material, but also includes football, basketball, hockey, boxing, and golf memorabilia. The collection ranges from the only full set of baseball Hall of Fame autographs in existence (including the only verified signature by the Negro League's Smokey Joe Williams) to the only known autographed Shoeless Joe Jackson game-used bat. His most precious objects are the very last photograph taken of Braves' Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn — the winningest left-hander in history, who, says Keating, "was like a father to me" — and Spahn's last autograph, which he signed the night before he suffered a fatal stroke in 2003. Keating has some advice for aspiring collectors: Collect what you love, he says, not what you think will make you rich. Work with reputable dealers who will stand by their material with unconditional lifetime guarantees of authenticity. And always check both the signature and the medium, says Keating: "Once I saw a Babe Ruth autograph written with a Sharpie, which wasn't invented until after Ruth died in 1948." — Jeanne Johnson
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Kozo Shimano Photo by Will Sweatman |
When Lance Armstrong won his sixth Tour de France victory
in July, Kozo Shimano felt equally victorious. That's
because the cycling champion's bike was fitted with Shimano
cranks, pedals, derailleurs, and brakes. As president of
Shimano American Corporation, the engineer-turned-executive
oversees the North American operations of Shimano
Corporation, a worldwide manufacturer of bicycle components
and fishing tackle. The company's cutting-edge parts have
become ubiquitous in the upper echelons of the cycling
world. Shimano credits the company's success with its dedication to both research and customer relations. Shimano, who was a member of the Hopkins Cycling Club as an undergrad, meets regularly with racers like Armstrong to discuss new products and prototypes. But that's just one part of his job, which requires a working knowledge of sales, marketing, advertising, purchasing, inventory control, customer service, accounting, finance, computer systems, and human resource management. "There are new challenges that occur almost every day," says Shimano. "I use my engineering background to logically and methodically solve these problems. It's exciting work that I do not think I will get bored with." — Phil Tang, A&S '95
First Fathers: The Men Who Inspired Our
Presidents, by Harold I. Gullan, A&S '53, John
Wiley & Sons (2004).
Monique Maddy, SAIS '86 Loving Africa comes naturally to Monique Maddy. Born in Liberia, she cherishes memories of her close-knit family, devoted friends, and proud, hard-working community in Yekepa, a modern "company town" developed by a Swedish multi-national corporation.
Her new book, Learning to Love Africa: My Journey from
Africa to Harvard Business School and Back
(HarperBusiness, 2004), is an attempt to get others to
share her affection. |
Monique Maddy Photo by |
"I wanted people to get a sense of Africa other than what
they see in the papers," Maddy says. "To see that people in
Africa are struggling like you and I, that we share the
same values." Learning to Love Africa relates the story of Maddy's idyllic childhood — an eclectic blend of African traditions and Western influences such as a home telephone, modern appliances, and access to health care. Her mother was a nurse and a teacher, her father a taxi driver, accountant, and later a successful restaurateur. Maddy's father was determined to provide the very best for his four children, she recalls, particularly with regard to education. "I will have no money to leave you," he told Maddy and her three brothers, "but with your education, you can be whatever you want to be." At 6, Maddy left Liberia to attend boarding schools in England. Years later, she would attend colleges in the United States. But despite time and distance, she never lost touch with her homeland and still cares deeply about its future. The heart and soul of Maddy's book, in fact, is the story of her dream to build a wireless telecommunications network in Africa. After receiving her master's degree in economic and development studies from Johns Hopkins, Maddy spent five years with the U.N. Development Program. Her first assignment to war-torn Angola shattered her once-high opinion of the United Nations. Rather than working directly with the Angolans on much-needed aid and services, Maddy was in charge of coordinating household repairs and the arrival of duty-free goods for her U.N. colleagues, who often lived a créme de la créme existence in the midst of tremendous poverty and strife. Maddy was determined to do better. She enrolled in Harvard Business School and, immediately after graduation, created the African Communications Group (later renamed Adesemi after her paternal grandmother) to finance, build, and operate a network of wireless pay phones, pagers, and individual voicemail boxes. Despite tremendous political, bureaucratic, and economic challenges, Maddy persevered and was soon serving millions of people in Tanzania. Through her company, Tanzanians purchased low-cost pagers that signaled when a message arrived, prompting them to retrieve the message by dialing in from the nearest Adesemi pay phone. Before Maddy initiated this system, most Tanzanians relied on human and vehicular courier services for long-distance communication. Adesemi's success was cut short when a late-stage corporate investor refused to contribute the venture capital funds needed for expansion. Maddy was forced to fold her company just seven years after she launched it. Devastated but not defeated, Maddy wrote her book with great candor, in hopes that African leaders, global business executives, policy makers, and entrepreneurs might benefit from the difficult lessons she had learned. In particular, she emphasized the need for deep pockets and high-level access to succeed at business in the developing world. These days, from her Boston home, the 42-year-old entrepreneur works with major global corporations to fund the Global Private Sector Initiative for Africa. She brings together forward-thinking executives with experience and knowledge to help develop effective strategies to overcome Africa's most pressing economic development challenges and integrate the continent more fully into the global economy. Maddy embraces the challenge. "I like finding ways to change things," she explains matter-of-factly. "I want to be part of the solution." — Marlene England
School of Nursing According to recent studies, a critical shortage of nurses in the United States will reach crisis proportions just as aging baby boomers begin to place new demands on an already overburdened health care system. Only 10 percent of the nation's nurses are under age 30, and a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services predicts that, without intervention, the problem in the U.S. overall will grow from a 6 percent nursing shortage in 2000 to a 29 percent shortage by 2020.
That's bad news for all of us because studies have
consistently linked a shortage of educated nurses in
hospitals to poorer health outcomes, medical errors, and
even death. |
As the School of Nursing grows its programming, the building, right, must grow its space. |
The Johns Hopkins
School of Nursing is stepping up to meet the crisis by
adding fast-track programs to the school's traditional
two-year program. Beginning in January 2005, 50 new
students will begin an accelerated, 17-month program for
students who already hold bachelor's degrees in other
disciplines. The pilot program comes in addition to the
school's existing 13.5 month accelerated baccalaureate
program that has been in existence since 1990. This past
June, 127 students enrolled in the largest-ever accelerated
class. The much-needed expansion of the nursing program creates a corresponding need for space. Says School of Nursing Dean Martha N. Hill, "While we are doing all that we can to accept as many outstanding applicants as possible, we have reached capacity. If we are to address the needs of our aging population and educate more of the best in nursing, we must grow our space and faculty." Many of the students coming out of the accelerated programs are going right where they're most needed: hospitals and community care settings across the United States. Consider the example of these three graduates who completed the 13.5 month accelerated program last July: Jennifer Winfree is now working as a nurse in the Critical Care Unit at the University of Virginia Hospital, where she is enrolled in a competitive nurse residency program. She says she particularly appreciates being able to work closely with patients and their families. "When you see a patient as someone's mother or brother, it makes it more personal," she says. "You're more motivated to go the extra mile, double-checking or taking time for the extra comfort measures that can make a patient's day." Lauren Magnifico signed on to work as a pediatric oncology nurse at Johns Hopkins' Children's Center. During her pediatric nursing rotation at the Children's Center, Magnifico's instructor, Lynnette Fuson, "made what could have been something depressing into a wonderful experience through her positive support and encouragement," Magnifico says. "I thought, 'I would love to work here.' And now I do." After working as an emergency room nurse for several months at Baltimore's Union Memorial Hospital, Lauren Stoian accepted a full-time position as a nurse with the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, where she first visited during a nursing rotation at the school. She loves working at the correctional center. "They aren't bad kids," she says. "They're amazing kids who have made some bad choices, and I really wanted to help make a difference in their lives. There are a lot of similarities between working at the correctional center and working in the ER, because you see the results of drugs and violence. Maybe I'm naive, but I always think there's hope." The School of Nursing is raising money through Johns Hopkins' Knowledge for the World campaign, in support of nursing education, with an emphasis on the following priorities: A $17 million addition to the nursing building that will expand capacity by 20-25 percent. Financial aid to defray education costs, especially for new students. Currently, tuition alone ranges from $41,670 for the 13.5 month program to $55,559 for the traditional two-year program. Support for community health clinics throughout Baltimore, where nurses provide medical care and offer health education and training. To learn more about how to support the School of Nursing, call 410-955-4284. To make an online gift, visit the "Guide to Giving" at www.alumni.jhu.edu. — JJ
Before the 1960s, most police operated within a subculture that eschewed outside interference, says Sheldon Greenberg, director of Johns Hopkins' Division of Public Safety Leadership. Then came a demand for police accountability, an emphasis on the rights of the accused, and the implementation of Miranda rights.
"The '60s were a turning point," Greenberg says. "The
police realized that we had to clean things up or people
would keep throwing rocks at us." |
Illustration by Robert Neubecker |
That was just the beginning of change. A new emphasis on
community policing, and the addition of 100,000 police
officers during the Clinton administration shifted police
work from stopgap responses to criminal acts to more
forward-looking concern over the effect of police behavior
on a community's well being. And particularly since 9/11,
officers are taking on new roles that demand technological
savvy and an unprecedented level of cooperation with
outside jurisdictions. According to Greenberg, these new roles and responsibilities require a new caliber of leadership, and that's precisely what the Johns Hopkins Police Executive Leadership Program provides. The program develops the leadership skills of criminal justice professionals in supervisory or executive positions. Since 1994, 279 graduate and 91 undergraduate PELP degrees have been awarded through the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education. Today, PELP graduates hold many top spots in federal agencies across the country and as chiefs of police and fire service. Many PELP graduates are helping to oversee the transition to a more terrorist-wary and prepared police force, including A. T. Smith, special agent-in-charge of the Secret Service's New York Field Office, who earned a master's degree in 2004 through a PELP/Secret Service partnership. As chief of the largest Secret Service field office in the country, Smith supervises the protective and investigative work of more than 300 employees. This year, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge named Smith the principal federal official in charge of homeland security for the tri-state region of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut — just in time for Smith to oversee security for the Republican National Convention in August and the United Nations' General Assembly in September. Smith's regional authority as a principal federal official extends to whatever jurisdiction may be necessary in the event of a terrorist attack or national disaster, requiring close cooperation with all levels of law enforcement. That kind of cooperation has been especially important post 9/11, according to another PELP graduate, Chief Wayne Livesay, SPSBE '98 (MS), head of the Howard County, Maryland, police department and head of the Maryland Chiefs Association. "Before, we left homeland security up to the federal government and concentrated on community crimes like robberies and burglaries. Now, we're doing things I didn't even think of five years ago," Livesay says, including holding daily terrorist briefings and sharing information with other law enforcement agencies. "Besides homeland security, police today have to deal with complex technology involved in everything from in-car computers to forensics and evidence-gathering," adds PELP grad William McManus, SPSBE '98 (MS), chief of the Minneapolis, Minnesota, police department. In addition, computer information systems provide police with detailed statistical analysis and computer modeling of crime trends. In general, McManus says, there's a trend toward greater professionalism and self-reflection among police, including more of an emphasis on ethics, particularly among students in elite educational programs such as PELP. PELP offers no criminal justice courses and instead adheres to a business model, with an emphasis on skills such as strategic planning, critical thinking, and the management of human resources. To McManus, that makes perfect sense. "Businesses are accountable to their customers," he says, "and ultimately, we're accountable to the public. We can no longer be insular. In a sense, citizens are our customers, and they're the ones we serve." — JJ
Hopkins Grads in Command of Public Safety Across the country, dozens of police chiefs or executives have graduated from the Police Executive Leadership Program. The list includes: Al Broadbend '96, vice-president of Safety and Security for Amtrak Teresa C. Chambers '97, former chief of the United States Park Police Mark S. Chaney '03, superintendent of the Maryland Natural Resources Police Clarence Edwards '96, assistant commissioner of the U.S. Federal Protective Service Police Jeff Eisenbeiser '04, special agent-in-charge of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Field Office, U.S. Secret Service Bernard Gerst '99, director of Public Safety for the Towson University Police Department (Maryland) William J. Goodwin '02, chief of the Baltimore, Maryland, Fire Department Polly L. Hanson '96, chief of the Metro Transit Police, Washington, D.C. Douglas Holland '00, chief of the Hyattsville, Maryland, Police Department Jeff Irvine '04, special agent-in-charge of the Clinton Protective Division, U.S. Secret Service Jeffery A. Krauss '00, chief of the Cheverly, Maryland, Police Department G. Wayne Livesay '98, chief of the Howard County, Maryland, Police Department Greg Marchio '04, special agent-in-charge of the Las Vegas, Nevada, Field Office, U.S. Secret Service William P. McManus '98, chief of the Minneapolis, Minnesota, Police Department Ronald Monroe '98, chief of the U.S. Government Printing Office Police Sonya Proctor '01, chief of the Amtrak Police P. Thomas Shanahan '96, chief of the Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Police Department A. T. Smith '04, special agent-in-charge, New York, New York, Field Office, U.S. Secret Service Ross Swope '97, chief of the U.S. Supreme Court Police Michael Taborn '99, director of the Office of Safety & Security for the Federal Transit Administration Robert C. White '96, chief of the Louisville, Kentucky, Metro Police Department
Camilla Benbow, A&S '77, '79 (MA), SPSBE '81 (EdD), dean of Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of Education and Human Development, has received a 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mensa Education and Research Foundation. The biannual award goes to an individual who has made significant lifetime contributions to the field of human intelligence and giftedness. Benbow, who has studied mathematically precocious youth for four decades, began her study of gifted adolescents while at Johns Hopkins, working with her mentor Julian Stanley, founder of the Center for Talented Youth. American Mensa, which requires members to have IQs in the top 2 percent of the population, funds the foundation along with other donors. Princeton University Professor Simon A. Levin, A&S '61, received the 2004 A. H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Levin, a mathematical ecologist, studies the dynamics of ecosystems, including the effects of global change on biological diversity. He has won both the MacArthur Award in 1988 and the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1979-80. Treena Livingston Arinzeh, Engr '95 (MS), assistant professor of biomedical engineering at New Jersey Technical Institute, has received a Presidential Award for research showing that adult stem cells could help patients suffering from spinal cord injuries, bone and cartilage damage, and related diseases. The award is the highest national honor for young scientists and engineers.
Alumni Events Around the United States
Baltimore Chapter
Sunday, November 21
Denver Chapter
Houston and North Texas Chapters
Los Angeles Chapter
New York Metro Chapter
Philadelphia Chapter
Pittsburgh Chapter
Washington, D.C. Chapter For a comprehensive, up-to-date list of chapter events, visit www.alumni.jhu.edu.
India Lowres, A&S '76, to Head Commencement India Lowres is moving out of the Steinwald Alumni House. In September, Lowres left her position as the director of Alumni Programs and assumed a new role as the first director of commencement, a position recently created within the Office of the President. Lowres has logged 15 years of service in the Office of Alumni Relations, following 13 years in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. In her first year in alumni relations, she helped establish the Alumni Council, the 150-member governing body of the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. As the director of Alumni Programs, Lowres supported multiple Alumni Council committees and played a pivotal role in planning and executing Leadership Weekend, an annual three-day event that brings together the Alumni Council and representatives from across the university to discuss the preceding year, present alumni awards, and outline an agenda for the future of the Alumni Association. Lowres has trained, organized, and led countless alumni and student volunteers and managed the day-to-day operations of the Alumni Relations office. "India has demonstrated great devotion and commitment to the university," says Fritz Schroeder, executive director of development and alumni relations. "She has been an outstanding steward for the Alumni Office, a wonderful colleague, and a true friend." He adds, "All of us at Johns Hopkins owe India a tremendous debt of gratitude, and while she is only moving to the other side of campus, we will miss her enormously at Steinwald." |
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