Field Ecology Students Help Colgate Earn Tree Campus Certification mdonofrio@colg… Tue, 04/01/2025 - 13:00 With more than 3,500 individual trees and 130 species, Colgate’s lush tree canopy provides an undeniably stunning backdrop for study, work, and play.  But when plant life is regarded as just part of the scenery — not something to learn about and engage with — it could point to a condition with serious implications for the future of our ecosystem. “Plant blindness is an actual phenomenon,” says Professor of Biology Eddie Watkins of the term coined by botanists James H. Wandersee and Elizabeth E. Schussler in 1998. When plants are seen as static or even purely decorative, Watkins explains, people are less likely to care about preserving them, despite their critical importance for air quality, food sources, and animal habitats. “Most of my career has been dedicated to helping people see plants from multiple perspectives — beyond their mere presence to who they are and what they do,” he says. Students in Watkins’ Field Ecology (BIOL 328) course joined in that effort last fall. With help from Oneida Nation botanist Sheri Beglen and Professor of Biology Emeritus Ron Hoham, students were tasked with developing a field guide, signage, and a website dedicated to the University’s diverse tree canopy, examining plant morphology and physiology and incorporating information about Native American traditions and medicinal uses. The project was supported by the President’s Office and funded through a grant from the Upstate Institute. The result of their semester-long endeavor: the Campus Tree Guide, a 69-page handbook with extensive information on every species from American Basswood to Sweet Gum, and an accompanying map, which guides visitors through the campus’ plant landscape, much like Hoham’s popular reunion tree walks.  “[The goal] was to share the traditional wisdom of the Oneida while honoring the two most important people who have shaped our tree canopy: President Brian Casey and Professor Hoham,” says Watkins, adding that President Casey’s emphasis on tree health and sustainability as part of the Third-Century Plan has added hundreds of trees from dozens of species to campus and “helped create a botanical Shangri-la for anyone interested in plants.” As the work on the Tree Guide progressed, Watkins encouraged students to submit Colgate’s application for national certification from The Arbor Day Foundation. They did — and later received news that the University was recognized as a 2024 Tree Campus “for its dedication to enhancing community well-being through tree education, investment, and engagement.” At an end-of-term celebration, students unveiled the Tree Guide to community members — and reflected on their months of hard work. “What surprised [students] most was their ability to pull off something this complex, this big, this public, in a single semester,” says Watkins, noting that students have expressed how work on the project helped them appreciate plant life on a deeper level. “You really can’t miss plants on this campus anymore.” Academics Natural Sciences and Mathematics Research Third Century News and Updates Faculty & Staff Student Department of Biology Photo by Mark DiOrio

Patti Rizzo ’26 Receives Goldwater Scholarship mniedt@colgate.edu Tue, 04/01/2025 - 08:14 Patti Rizzo ’26, a chemistry and applied math double major from Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., has been named as a recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship.  The Goldwater Scholarship Program identifies and supports college sophomores and juniors on their way to becoming research leaders in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics. “Receiving the Barry Goldwater Scholarship is an honor,” Rizzo says. “It will provide the support, resources, and encouragement I need to explore new scientific ideas and work toward achieving my long-term career goal of continuing research at the graduate level.” During her sophomore year at Colgate, Rizzo joined the lab of Visiting Assistant Professor Shanmuka Shivashankara working on theoretical high-energy physics. This experience led to a co-authorship on a peer-reviewed paper — an achievement that she credits for giving her the desire to pursue a career in research. “Applying my knowledge of coding and matrices to create a deeper understanding of the behavior of subatomic particles and seeing these fundamental concepts contribute to higher-level research made me see how interconnected research and my passion for math could be,” Rizzo states. Following this experience, Rizzo completed a summer research opportunity, working under Assistant Professor of Chemistry Eric Muller on polymer analyses. Polymer blends are chains of different molecules that can come together to form patterns on a very small scale. But how can we see the arrangement of polymers in these nanostructures? Rizzo wanted to know. So she used infrared scattering scanning nearfield optical microscopy, IR s-SNOM, in a new way to take pictures of the nanostructures. The method allowed her to dig down and see how different pieces of polymer interacted with each other and with light. The information in her snapshots could aid in the design of electronic devices. Rizzo will continue this work with Muller this fall. In addition to pursuing research, Rizzo is the president of the Colgate Chemistry Club and tutors high school students with Colgate High School Tutors. She aims to inspire young girls to be curious and pursue science. She is also an oboist in the Colgate University Orchestra. Rizzo is currently studying abroad in Cardiff Wales, and she recently accepted a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates position at the Northwestern University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, an interdisciplinary program focused on multi-functional nanoscale material structures. To learn more about the Goldwater Scholarship or other nationally competitive awards, reach out to Meghan Niedt, mniedt@colgate.edu, in the Office of National Fellowships and Scholarships to schedule an appointment. Academics Natural Sciences and Mathematics News and Updates Student onfs Department of Chemistry Department of Mathematics Patti Rizzo ’26

Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith to Deliver Colgate University’s 2025 Commencement Address rdowning@colgate.edu Mon, 03/31/2025 - 17:10 Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith will deliver the commencement address at Colgate University’s 2025 Commencement on Sunday, May 18. Smith is a distinguished national security expert with more than two decades of experience in U.S. and European defense policy, transatlantic relations, and geostrategic risk. She has held senior leadership positions at the White House, the Department of Defense, and the Department of State, where she has shaped NATO’s response to the Ukraine war, advanced U.S.-European economic and military partnerships, and addressed global security challenges stemming from China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia. As ambassador, Smith played a pivotal role in securing Allied support for Ukraine, coordinating intelligence sharing with allies, and finalizing Finland and Sweden’s accession to the alliance, from 2021 to 2024. She also led efforts to integrate China into NATO’s Strategic Concept. During the Obama administration, Smith served as acting national security advisor and deputy national security advisor to Vice President Joseph Biden. Prior to that role, she served as the principal director for European and NATO Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Her career spans influential roles at think tanks such as the German Marshall Fund, the Center for a New American Security, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she published extensively on grand strategy, Russia, counter-terrorism, and China’s deepening relationships in Europe. Smith has been honored with multiple awards, including the Order of the Polar Star of Sweden, the U.S. Department of Defense Distinguished Service Award, the Sue M. Cobb Award for Diplomatic Excellence, and the Cross of the Order of Merit of Germany. Fluent in French and German, she has conducted extensive research in Europe, including fellowships at the Robert Bosch Academy and the American Academy in Berlin. At the May 18 commencement ceremony, Colgate will also honor Smith with an honorary doctorate, alongside Gretchen Hoadley Burke ’81, P’11,’20, Ann S. Masten, John McWhorter, Jill Tiefenthaler, Deborah Willis, and Richard Trusty Patrick Woolard ’65.   Gretchen Hoadley Burke ’81, P’11,’20 Gretchen Hoadley Burke ’81 is deeply interested in education, providing access to underserved students, and supporting visual artists around the world. She has served in leadership roles on a number of philanthropic boards including The Episcopal Academy, Steppingstone Scholars Inc., Via Art Fund, and Tinworks Art. She has led numerous capital campaigns, including the $100 million raised to build a new campus for The Episcopal Academy and $35 million for the new children’s zoo at the Philadelphia Zoo. In her 13 years on Colgate’s Board of Trustees, she was vice chair for 8 years, co-chaired the $1B Campaign for the Third Century, and, together with her husband Steve ’80, funded several initiatives including the Upstate Institute’s endowed chair in regional studies; financial aid; the renovation of Case Library and Geyer Center for Information Technology; and Burke Hall, one of two residence halls that opened in 2019. While a Colgate student, Burke majored in English and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Burke earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, then worked in finance and banking prior to staying home with her five children, two of whom are Colgate graduates. Ann S. Masten Ann Masten is Regents Professor of child development and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Institute of Child Development. With her research focus on understanding risk and resilience in human development, she identified the fundamental psychosocial resilience factors in children that promote positive development and protect against adversity. In 2024, Masten received the Grawemeyer Prize in Psychology for her idea that resilience depends on ordinary but powerful processes. Past president of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) and the developmental division of the American Psychological Association (APA), Masten is a fellow in the APA and the Association for Psychology Science. Among other awards, she has received the Smith College Medal, lifetime contribution awards from APA and SRCD, and an honorary degree from Erasmus University of Rotterdam. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021. Masten has published more than 300 scholarly works, cited more than 110,000 times. Her free online course, “Resilience in Children Exposed to Trauma, Disaster and War,” has been taken by thousands of participants from more than 180 countries. The second edition of her book Ordinary Magic: Resilience in Development is coming out this spring and her autobiography is included in the 2025 volume Pillars of Developmental Psychology. John McWhorter New York Times columnist John McWhorter is also an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, where he also teaches music history. He specializes in language change and language contact, and is the author of The Missing Spanish Creoles, Language Simplicity and Complexity, and The Creole Debate. McWhorter has written extensively on issues related to linguistics, race, and other topics for Time, the New York Times, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and elsewhere, and has been a contributing editor at The Atlantic. For the general public, he is the author of The Power of Babel, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, The Language Hoax, Words on the Move, Talking Back, Talking Black, and other books, including Nine Nasty Words and Woke Racism, both of which were New York Times bestsellers. He hosts the Lexicon Valley language podcast, has authored six audiovisual sets on language for the Great Courses company, and has written weekly for the New York Times since 2021. Jill Tiefenthaler As chief executive officer of the National Geographic Society, Jill Tiefenthaler is shaping the future of one of the world’s most iconic organizations. She leads the society’s mission-driven work, guiding a global community of National Geographic Explorers — scientists, innovators, educators and storytellers — dedicated to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world. She also serves on the society’s Board of Trustees. Since becoming CEO in 2020, Tiefenthaler launched the society’s strategic plan, NG Next, ushering in a new era of growth and global impact. She is spearheading the transformation of National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., including the opening of the Museum of Exploration — the most significant expansion of the society’s public space in 137 years. Under Tiefenthaler’s leadership, the society has achieved its most ambitious fundraising results, raising more than $100 million each of the past three years. She also strengthened the organization’s partnership with The Walt Disney Company and serves on the board of National Geographic Partners. A visionary leader in institutional transformation, Tiefenthaler spent more than 30 years in higher education. She served as president of Colorado College, provost at Wake Forest University, and professor of economics and associate dean at Colgate. Deborah Willis Deborah Willis is University Professor and chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has affiliated appointments with the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Social & Cultural Analysis, and the Institute of Fine Arts, where she teaches courses on photography and imaging, iconicity, and cultural histories visualizing the black body, women, and gender. She directs NYU’s Center for Black Visual Culture/Institute of African American Affairs. Her research examines photography’s multifaceted histories, visual culture, the photographic history of slavery and emancipation, contemporary women photographers, and beauty. Willis is the author of Kamala: Her Historic, Joyful, And Auspicious Sprint to the White House (Kevin Merida, co-author), The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship, and Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present, among others. Her curated exhibitions include “Framing Moments in the KIA” at Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts and “Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory” at FotoFocus. Willis was awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship and was a Richard D. Cohen Fellow in African and African American Art at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center; a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, and an Alphonse Fletcher Jr. Fellow. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she was the Robert Mapplethorpe Photographer in Residence of the American Academy in Rome. A recipient of the Don Tyson Prize for the Advancement of American Art by the Crystal Bridges Museum in 2022, Willis was named the Mary Lucille Dauray Artist-in-Residence by the Norton Museum of Art and taught her masterclass Home, Reimagining Interiority at Anderson Ranch in 2023. In 2024, Willis was appointed board chair of the Andy Warhol Foundation and elected to the American Philosophical Society. Richard Trusty Patrick Woolard ’65 Early in his Navy career, Rick Woolard completed Navy SEAL and Army Ranger Training, then led more than 100 combat missions in Vietnam as a SEAL officer. Woolard later commanded SEAL Team Six, the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, and SEAL Team Two, where he spearheaded the initial development of SEAL Combat Swimmer, Sniper, and Mountain and Arctic Warfare capabilities. He also served with the British Special Boat Service and as director for combating terrorism in the Pentagon. His military decorations include the Silver Star and Legion of Merit as well as three each of the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. His military experiences appear in several books and documentaries, including the film Minh: A Bond Unbroken, which tells how he and his SEAL Teammates found and rescued their Vietnamese combat interpreter 40 years after the war. After active duty, Woolard enjoyed a second career in the private sector and became involved in charitable work. He served as president of the Special Operations Fund and chairman of the National Navy SEAL Museum Board of Directors, creating the Navy SEAL Monument in Virginia and the Naval Combat Demolition Units/Scouts and Raiders Monument in Normandy. News and Updates Student

Annual New Media Lecture Series Welcomes Bio-Artist and Filmmaker Kathy High ʼ77 rtaurisano@col… Fri, 03/28/2025 - 10:05 Colgate University welcomed prolific bio-artist and experimental filmmaker Kathy High ʼ77 as part of the Eric J. Ryan and Film and Media Studies (FMST) Annual New Media Lecture Series, March 11–13. The series is part of the Middle Campus Initiative for Arts, Creativity, and Innovation, which integrates the arts into life and learning at Colgate. Read more. Academics Arts and Humanities Alumni Third Century Arts News and Updates Alumni Film and Media Studies Program Photo by Mark DiOrio

David Kelley to Visit Colgate as Clifford Family Innovator in Residence jkellogg@colgate.edu Tue, 03/25/2025 - 15:01 Engineer, designer, and entrepreneur David Kelley will visit Colgate as the University’s second Clifford Family Innovator in Residence, April 8–10, 2025. Kelley is the Donald W. Whittier Professor in mechanical engineering at Stanford University, where he serves as faculty director of Stanford’s d.school, an interdisciplinary center for design, dedicated to helping students develop their creative capacity. Kelley is a leader in human-centered design methodology and design thinking. He is a co-founder of the Silicon Valley design and consulting firm IDEO and co-author of the book Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All. During his residency at Colgate, Kelley will consult with students and faculty members from Colgate’s Design for America studio, visit two Department of Computer Science courses on human-computer interaction, and lead an interdisciplinary seminar for students facing design-related challenges in their research or creative projects. In addition to these direct contributions to the curriculum, he will also help strategize about the next phase of Colgate’s Arts, Creativity, and Innovation (ACI) Initiative by touring Bernstein Hall, visiting current museum and gallery exhibitions, and meeting with the ACI Steering Committee. The Clifford Family Innovator in Residence program is funded by a permanent endowment from Trustee Emeritus Chris Clifford ’67, H’11, P’93 and Carrie Clifford ’93. The residency is a cornerstone of ACI, engaging students and faculty in the work of artists, designers, entrepreneurs, and creatives from various fields. Arts and Humanities Third Century News and Updates Faculty & Staff Department of Computer Science

Convergence Leadership Summit Inspires Students ddevries@colgate.edu Mon, 03/24/2025 - 12:38 Just steps away from the historic Apollo Theater on West 125th Street in New York City, more than 40 Colgate students joined with nearly 100 alumni for the 2025 Convergence Leadership Summit and a special Alumni of Color panel discussion about arts and innovation. The March 14–15 event, open to all students and organized by the Men of Color Success Network and the Women of Color Network, brought together students and successful alumni from a wide range of professional backgrounds to foster career exploration and networking opportunities. “This transformative experience brought together 44 talented Colgate students and dozens of inspiring alumni, creating a space for deep conversations, mentorship, and collaboration,” said Dean of Students Dorsey Spencer Jr. “From an empowering keynote to insightful workshops and panel discussions, the event was a testament to the power of community, leadership, and innovation.” Spencer also gave a nod to the students in attendance for giving up the first two days of their spring break to participate in leadership development and networking opportunities. “Your mission today is to connect with at least seven different people,” Spencer said. “Get their business cards, their LinkedIn, email, phone number, whatever. That’s what you need to do.” Convergence 2025 Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso Friday night keynote speaker Nicol Turner Lee ’90 shared her experiences working at the Brookings, where she is a senior fellow in governance studies, the director of the Center for Technology Innovation (CTI), and co-editor-in-chief of the TechTank blog and The TechTank Podcast. Her research focuses on the intersection between technology and social justice in areas that range from universal access to communications to the design and application of artificial intelligence models. Turner Lee delved into the subject of artificial intelligence, which she covers in her newest book, Digitally Invisible, How the Internet Is Creating the New Underclass. Lee said there’s value in having teams of people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds working on AI to help design systems that don’t inadvertently discriminate based on the overwhelming amount of information being analyzed without context online. “Who sits at the table matters when it comes to technology,” Turner Lee said. “What data is used also influences the AI model.” Saturday panelists included: Senior Content Curator at Tubi Imani Ballard ’18; Colgate Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies and Africana and Latin American Studies Aaron Dial; Founder and Executive Director of HOPE Murals and Vice Chair, City of Miami Arts and Entertainment Council German DuBois III ’91; Photography and Registrar and Archivist for Nick Knight CBE Kali McMillan ’10; Founder of Ballers4Life, Film Production and Literacy Teacher at Minneapolis Public Schools Jeffrey S. Williams ’89; and closing remarks were made by the Denny Gonzalez ’13, director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Barrie School.Alumni Outcomes News and Updates Alumni Faculty & Staff Student Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso