Astronomers Honor K Student for Her Research

An organization of professional astronomers is honoring Kalamazoo College senior Hayley Beltz for her Senior Individualized Project and summer research, which Beltz presented to the group’s members.

Hayley Beltz astronomers
Hayley Beltz was one of five undergraduates from across the country to earn a Chambliss medal from the American Astronomical Society, a group of professional astronomers.
Hayley Beltz Presents at Astronomers Meeting
The American Astronomical Society, a professional astronomers group, is honoring Kalamazoo College senior Hayley Beltz for her research in quasar spectroscopy.

The Astronomy Achievement Student Awards, which were bestowed in January through the American Astronomical Society (AAS), recognize exemplary student presentations offered at its organizational meetings. Beltz’s research involved quasar spectroscopy, meaning she analyzed light that is billions of years old to find and measure the large concentrations of hydrogen that develop as stars form.

The highest AAS honorees, including Beltz – a double major in physics and math from St. Joseph, Michigan – are given a Chambliss medal. Beltz was one of five undergraduate medal winners, who included students from the University of Colorado, the University of Louisville, California State Polytechnic University and Rollins College.

Beltz said she is very excited about the award and it feels validating to win it considering she wants to attend graduate school in astronomy after graduating from K.

The AAS, established in 1899 and based in Washington, D.C., has about 7,000 members including physicists, mathematicians, geologists, engineers and other researchers from the broad spectrum of astronomy-related fields. Its mission is to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe.

 

MakerBot Made Possible by Alumnus

Kalamazoo College Alumnus Harry GarlandHarry Garland ’68, Ph.D., is pictured in Upjohn Library Commons with one of the several MakerBot 3D printers Kalamazoo College was able to purchase thanks to a donation from Garland for that purpose. The picture was taken last October when Garland visited campus and discussed the various uses of the printers with Josh Moon, educational technology specialist in the Information Services division. “3D printing offers students technology that can create physical examples of their designs, art projects, models and historical artifacts,” said Josh.  “It also lets them engage with a community of digital designers who are sharing their work with others for scholarship, productivity, and fun.  As a young, experimental tool the MakerBot is available to all classes and students for exploration.” Garland’s gift combines his love of technology and his love of K. As an undergraduate here he developed superior analytical and problem-solving skills that became a foundation for a distinguished career that has included writing three books, being awarded 20 patents, serving on K’s board of trustees, teaching at Stanford University, and co-founding three businesses, including a 400-employee firm that made an immediate precursor to the first personal computers.

K Professor Helps SCORE the Power of the Music Creeping in our Ears

Kalamazoo College Psychology Professor Siu-Lan Tan
Professor of Psychology Siu-Lan Tan at Tower City theaters, where the film, SCORE, played for three days in five theaters as part of the Cleveland International Film Festival.

The very same expertise (teaching and music) that made the role of Siu-Lan Tan so prominent in the documentary SCORE also prohibited her from attending any of the more than 40 public screenings of the film–she was, after all, busy teaching classes. That changed in early April, when the professor of psychology at Kalamazoo College was finally able to see a festival screening of the film at the 41st Annual Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF).

She picked a great screening, or screenings.

“The first screening at Cedar Lee Theater sold out,” says Siu-Lan. “On day two, they moved the film [full title: SCORE: A Film Music Documentary] to a theater complex at Tower City and the cinema sold out again.  So they opened a second theater, and that one filled too! On the last screening day, they filled two theaters for SCORE and had to turn more people away.”

That enthusiastic reception kept Siu-Lan busy.

“The director [Matt Schrader] asked if I could attend as a special guest from the cast, and I joined Q&A sessions at the first and third screenings. I also did 35-minute extended Q&A Chat Room by myself.”

And CIFF is no small event. This year more than 100,000 people attended. The festival featured the work of some 300 filmmakers and a total of 418 films from 71 countries. SCORE won in its category (Music Movies Competition) and was one of only 15 films recognized on closing night.

Why the great response? Because the best movie you ever saw is the best, in part, because it’s the best movie you ever heard. Siu-Lan and some 60 other people interviewed for SCORE help explain the critical role of music scores to the emotional impact of a film. In addition to Siu-Lan, others interviewed include some of the top living film composers in United States and the United Kingdom (Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Randy Newman,  Howard Shaw, Trent Reznor, Alexandre Desplat, among others), as well as film directors like James Cameron, producers like Quincy Jones and several film scholars.

An expert in the psychology of music (a course she teaches at K) Siu-Lan appears five times in the film. Kalamazoo College is mentioned every time Siu-Lan appears, and K is thanked in the end credits along with the filming location of Dalton Theater.

The popular film is on the docket for many upcoming festivals. You can also check upcoming screenings here. So if you get a chance, go see SCORE; it’s likely to be the best film you’ve ever heard, or at least reveal why your favorite movie has as much to do with your ears as your eyes.

Shakespeare was right when he had Lorenzo say (Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Scene 1) that it is music creeping in our ears that has the sweet power (like Orpheus) to change the very nature of reality and the way we perceive it. A film without its score is a body without its heart.

SCORE is scheduled for release in theaters in 20-25 major cities on June 16.

Two ‘Zoo Teams Enjoy the Google Games

Whoo hoo! The long /oo/ sound came through when a Kalamazoo College team won first place in the Google Games. Two K teams participated–“The Metros” included Timothy Rutledge ’19, David Gurrola ’19, Fabien Debies ’20 and Daniel Michelin ’18; “Graph Isomorphism Problem” (which happened to win the friendly competition involving some 20 teams from K, the Illinois Institute of Technology, DePaul University, Western Michigan University, the University of Illinois-Chicago, the Milwaukee School of Engineering and the University of Notre Dame) featured the line-up of Jennifer Cho ’19, Abhay Goel ’18, Jacob Naranjo ’18 and Dahwi Kim ’19. The emphasis was definitely on fun, not finish, and all teams enjoyed in a day-long event of coding, puzzles and word association games with a theme of “Top Secret Mission.” Teams could solve puzzles by hand or by writing code. Congratulations to all!

K Students Participate in Google Games
Team “Graph Isomorphism Problem” included (l-r) Jennifer Cho ’19, Abhay Goel ’18, Jacob Naranjo ’18 and Dahwi Kim ’19.

Dean’s List Winter 2017

Congratulations to the following Kalamazoo College students, who achieved a grade point average of 3.5 or better for a full-time course load of at least three units, without failing or withdrawing from any course, during the Winter 2017 academic term. Students who elect to take a letter-graded course on a credit/no credit basis (CR/NC) are not eligible for Dean’s List consideration during that term. Nor are students who receive an F, NC or W grade for that particular term. Students with incomplete (I) or in-progress (IP) grades will be considered for Dean’s List upon receipt of the final grades. Dean’s List recognition is posted on students’ transcripts. Kudos to the entire group of more than 300 students, and good luck in Spring Term, 2017.

Winter 2017

A  B   C  D  E  F   G   H   I   J  K   L   M  N   O  P   Q  R   S   T   U   V  W   X   Y   Z

A

Maddy Adams
Azra Ahmad
Isak Akervall
Michelle Alba
Allegra Allgeier
Cheyenne Allyn-White
Kristen Amyx-Sherer
Georgie Andrews
Steven Andrews
Hunter Angileri
Lucas Arbulu
Mary Beth Arendash
Lauren Arquette
Meredith Ashton
Max Aulbach
Juan Avila

B

Bailey Baas
Sonal Bahl
Martin Barrera Vicente
Ethan Beattie
Grace Beck
Ben Behrens
Dylan Beight
Will Bell
Kate Bennett
Erin Bensinger
Brigette Berke
Daniel Bidwell
Maribel Blas-Rangel
Kyra Blum
Vanessa Boddy
Serena Bonarski
Jake Bonifacio
Maddi Booth
Riley Boyd
Emily Boyle
Drew Bremer
Heather Brown
Molly Brueger
Joel Bryson
Andrew Buchholtz
Mary Burnett
Thaddeus Buttrey
Shanice Buys
Erin Byrd

C

Alex Cadigan
Abby Calef
Mackenzie Callahan
Madison Campbell
Micaela Campos
Kefu Cao
Angel Caranna
Shannon Carley
Justin Carlson
Owen Carroll
Rachel Carson
Marissa Cash
Kebra Cassells
James Castleberry
Sharmeen Chauhdry
Sherry Chen
Chido Chigwedere
Tapiwa Chikungwa
Maddie Chilcote
Liza Chinchilakashvili
Nutsa Chinchilakashvili
Emiline Chipman
Daniel Cho
Josh Cho
Samantha Choknumtumnukit
Iffat Chowdhury
Paige Chung
Yoensuk Chung
Jack Clark
Joe Cleary
Elizabeth Clevenger
Chris Coburn
Quin Colwell
Carmen Compton
Hannah Cooperrider
Valentina Cordero
Austin Cramer
Ethan Cuka

D

Addie Dancer
Christina Dandar
Elan Dantus
Druanna Darling
Amelia Davis
Corrin Davis
Robert Davis
Ximena Davis
Sophia Davis-Rodak
Eric De Witt
Tim DeCoursey
Joshua DeGraff
Ricardo DelOlmo-Parrado
Green Dickenson
Anthony Diep
Dominic DiFranco
Alexis Diller
Tuan Do
Mikayla Doepker
Guillermo Dominguez Garcia
Nate Donovan
Libby Dulski
Alivia DuQuet
Kayla Dziadzio

E

Cameron Earls
Adam Edery
Tristyn Edsall
Emma Eisenbeis
Tiffany Ellis
Anna Emenheiser
Anais Emory
Melissa Erikson
McKinzie Ervin
Amanda Esler
Lia Evangelista
Ihechi Ezuruonye

F

Rachel Fadler
Alex Fairhall
Emily Finch
Anders Finholt
Matthew Flotemersch
Mone’t Foster
Jack Fowler
Christopher Francis
Rachel Frank
Ian Freshwater
Annah Freudenburg
Lydia Fyie

G

Felipe Gabela
Alicia Gaitan
Owen Galvin
Liam Gantrish
Amanda Gardner
Brett Garwood
Katie George
Sarah Gerendasy
Carina Ghafari
Camille Giacobone
Josh Gibson
Kelen Gill
Danielle Gin
Anthony Giovanni
Rachel Girard
Nebiyat Girma
Samantha Gleason
Beau Godkin
Dominic Gonzalez
Marlon Gonzalez
Rj Goodloe
Monica Gorgas
Adam Gothard
Janelle Grant
Keenan Grant
Andre Grayson
Claire Greening
Gelinda Guo
Maya Gurfinkel
Gus Guthrie

H

Jessie Hansen
Martin Hansknecht
Maverick Hanson-Meier
Jacob Hardy
Eric Hart
Mara Hazen
Alyssa Heitkamp
Ashley Henne
Daniel Henry
Gabrielle Herin
Kaiya Herman-Hilker
Addie Hilarides
Sophia Hill
Kento Hirakawa
Louis Hochster
Megan Hoinville
Aly Homminga
Taylor Horton
Daniel Horwitz
Annabelle Houghton
Yuxi Huang
Nicole Huff
Ayla Hull

I

Bradley Iseri

J

Sadie Jackson
Aliyah Jamaluddin
Alejandro Jaramillo
Clare Jensen
Jon Jerow
Hanna Jeung
YanYan Jiang
Amanda Johnson
Paige Johnson
Emily Johnston
Brittany Jones

K

Kamalaldin Kamalaldin
Sharat Kamath
Maria Katrantzi
Alex Kaufman
Greg Kearns
Johanna Keller
Christian Kelley
Christina Keramidas
Jasmine Khin
Dahwi Kim
David Kim
Eunji Kim
Gyeongho Kim
Min Soo Kim
Yejee Kim
Savannah Kinchen
Ian Kobernick
Joe Koh
Julia Koreman
Matthew Krinock
Lily Krone
John Kunec
Jennie Kwon

L

Megan Lacombe
Phuong Anh Lam
Bryan Lara
Zoe Larson
Madeline Lauver
Andrew Laverenz
Sebastian Lawler
Phuong Le
Stefan Leclerc
Sabrina Leddy
Alex Lee
Joo Lee
Kelsi Levine
Emily Levy
Rachel Lifton
Xiang Lin
Rosella LoChirco
Sara Lonsberry
Lee Lotus
Elise Lovaas
Abby Lu
Nick Ludka
Cam Lund
Liam Lundy

M

Sydney Madden
Sam Maddox
Jessica Magana
Madisyn Mahoney
Kayla Marciniak
Helena Marnauzs
Cydney Martell
Elizabeth Martin
Kathryn Martin
Sophia Martin
Sam Matthews
Kevin McCarty
Aaron McKay
Katherine McKibbon
Branden Metzler
John Meyer
Danny Michelin
Briann Millan
Chelsea Miller
Joshua Miller
Myranda Miller
Sangtawun Miller
Suzanne Miller
Zach Miller
Jamie Misevich
Michael Mitchell
Vane Monda
Jake Mooradian
Maddie Moote
Alejandra Morales
Zach Morales
Aidan Morley
Amanda Moss
Ryan Mulder
Emma Mullenax
Libby Munoz
Stuart Murch
Hannah Muscara

N

Zhi Nee Wee
Kyle Neuner
Ellen Neveux
Viet Nguyen
Skyler Nichols
Annie Nielsen
Nick Nizzardini
Jonathan Nord
Skyler Norgaard
Emily Norwood
Brooke Nosanchuk

O

Evan O’Donnell
Eli Orenstein
Colleen Orwin
Michael Orwin

P

Dylan Padget
Daniel Palmer
Karina Pantoja
Jimmy Paprocki
Alan Park
Christina Park
Kayla Park
Andrew Parsons
Cayla Patterson
Caleb Patton
Marlisa Pennington
Jessica Penny
Allie Periman
Sean Peterkin
Uyen Pham
Katherine Pielemeier
Tony Pisto
Maylis Pourtau
Nicole Prentice
Maren Prophit
Tulani Pryor
Danielle Purkey

Q

 

R

Erin Radermacher
Ari Raemont
Hannah Rainaldi
Yajaera Ramirez
Malavika Rao
Zack Ray
Tori Regan
Erin Reilly
Mili Renuart
James Reuter
Dulce Reyes Martinez
Megan Rigney
Tucker Rigney
Cecilia Ringo
Philip Ritchie
Ben Rivera
Scott Roberts
Becca Rogers
Justin Roop
Melanie Ross-Acuna
Jeremy Roth
Orly Rubinfeld
Elli Rubin-McGregor
Devin Rush
Tim Rutledge
Keigan Ryckman
Matthew Ryder

S

Shiva Sah
Rumsha Sajid
Tanush Samson
Danielle Sarafian
Anselm Scheck
Katharine Scheck
Austen Scheer
Ashley Schiffer
Ashley Schmidt
Natalie Schmitt
Sarah Schmitt
Jacob Scott
Jd Seablom
Eli Seitz
Yeji Seo
Jasmine Shaker
Sharif Shaker
Chase Shelbourne
Riley Shepherd
Jenna Sherman
Arun Shrestha
Kylah Simmons
Jacob Sines
Karishma Singh
Griffin Smalley
Austin Smith
Ben Smith
Erin Smith
Logan Smith
Maggie Smith
Adam Snider
Katie Sorensen
Shannon South
Mariam Souweidane
Sophie Spencer
Katie Spink
Sydney Spring
Maya Srkalovic
Austin Sroczynski
Nora Stagner
Gabriel Stanley
Evan Stark-Dykema
Grant Stille
Petra Stoppel
Andrea Strasser-Nicol
Michelle Sugimoto
Sarah Sui
Caroline Sulich
Shelby Suseland
Garrett Swanson

T

William Tait
Aidan Tank
Emma Tardiff
Hanna Teasley
Nana Temple
Audrey Thomas
Louise Thomas
Natalie Thompson
Eric Thornburg
Charles Timmons
Paige Tobin
Ben Toledo
Alayna Tomlinson
Elizabeth Topper
Zachary Tornow
Brooke Travis
Dakota Trinka
Ronald Trosin
Myles Truss
Hassan Turk
Matt Turton
Shelby Tuthill

U

Lexi Ugelow

V

Mick Valatkas
Cynthia Valentin
Madison Vallan
Kaela Van Til
Adriana Vance
Austin Vance
Joshua Vance
David Vanderkloot
Zach VanFaussien
Erica Vanneste
Taylor VanWinkle
Greg Vasilion
Natalie Vazquez
Travis Veenhuis
Cory Vincent
Aiden Voss
Liam VosWilliams
Koji Vroom
Anh-Tu Vu

W

Raoul Wadhwa
Evie Wagner
Colin Waller
Hedy Wang
Madeline Ward
Jake Wasko
Ailih Weeldreyer
Jack Wehr
Cameron Werner
Sarah Whitfield
Annarosa Whitman
Nora Wichmann
Jessica Wile
Rachel Williams
Blake Willison
Meg Wilson
Raen Wolmark
Camille Wood
Julia Woods
Madeline Woods
Lindsay Worthington
Alexis Wright
Kate Wynne

X

Cindy Xiao
Terence Xu

Y

Samantha Young

Z

Julie Zabik
Matthew Zhiss
Amy Zhu
Ruijin Zhu
Ian Zigterman

Endowed Professorships Mark the Quality of Pedagogy at K

Kalamazoo College recently appointed four faculty as endowed professors. Endowed professorships are positions funded by the annual earnings from an endowed gift or gifts to the College; therefore they are a direct reflection of 1) the value donors attribute to the excellent teaching and mentorship that occurs at K, and 2) the desire of donors to ensure the continuation of that excellence. Currently at K there are 26 endowed faculty positions, including the four recently announced.

Hannah Apps is the Thomas K. Kreilick Professor of Economics;

John Dugas is the Margaret and Roger Scholten Associate Professor of International Studies;

Kyla Day Fletcher is the Lucinda H. Stone Assistant Professor of Psychology; and

Sarah Lindley is the Arcus Social Justice Leadership Professor of Art.

Hannah Apps
Hannah Apps

Hannah Apps earned a B.A. degree, cum laude, from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.  She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984.  She began her career at K in 1989, teaching a wide range of courses from principles of economics to public sector and urban economics to econometrics.  She served one term as mayor of the city of Kalamazoo and seven terms as vice mayor (1997 through 2014), community service that well aligns with her scholarly focus on community and economic development.  Her body of scholarship is impressive–two monographs; more than a dozen papers, articles and reports; numerous invited presentations; and a number of consultancies, typically with local governments and public agencies. Apps was selected as a Woman of Achievement by the Kalamazoo YWCA in 2004.  At K she has been department chair, chair of the Faculty Hearing Committee, and (currently) member of the Faculty Personnel Committee.

John Dugas
John Dugas

John Dugas earned his B.A., magna cum laude, from Louisiana State University. He completed his Ph.D. (political science) from Indiana University. He began his career at K in 1995 and teaches a range of courses in international politics and Latin American politics.  His early research focused on issues of political reform in Colombia, including decentralization, constitutional reform, and political party reform.  In more recent years, he has written about U.S. foreign policy toward Colombia as well as on human rights in the northern Andes. His current research explores the concept of “political genocide” in relation to the systematic killing of members of the Unión Patriótica, a Colombian political movement that was decimated in the 1980s and 1990s. He is the co-author of one book and the editor of another, both published in Spanish in Colombia.  His scholarship also includes nine book chapters, three articles in refereed journals, and numerous book reviews and conference papers.  Dugas is the recipient of two Fulbright Grants, one for teaching and research in Bogotá, Colombia (1999) and another for research in Quito, Ecuador (2010-2011).  At K Dugas has served as chair of the political science department and is currently the director of International and Area Studies major.  He is also the faculty advisor for the Model United Nations student organization.

Kyla Fletcher
Kyla Fletcher

Kyla Day Fletcher earned a B.S. degree, summa cum laude, from Howard University.  She earned a Ph.D. (developmental psychology) from the University of Michigan.  She has worked at K since 2012, teaching general psychology, adolescent development, psychology of the African-American experience, research methods, and psychology of sexuality. She has published five peer-reviewed journal articles since 2014 and is currently the principal investigator of a study titled “Substance Use and Partner Characteristics in Daily HIV Risk in African Americans.” That study is sponsored by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health).  Fletcher has been an active contributor to the psychology department and the College, most recently serving as a representative on the presidential search committee.

Sarah Lindley
Sarah Lindley

Sarah Lindley earned her Bachelor of Fine Art degree, magna cum laude, from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.  She earned a M.F.A. (ceramics) from the University of Washington.  Since 2001 she has taught a wide range of ceramics and sculpture courses, and she has managed and maintained K’s ceramics, sculpture and woodshop studios and equipment.  Lindley served as an Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Faculty Fellow in 2010-2011, and in that capacity she helped found the Community Studio in downtown Kalamazoo’s Park Trades Center. The Community Studio provides space for advanced art students to do and show work in close proximity to and collaboration with professional artists and community advocates for the arts and social justice.  In 2014 Lindley won the Michigan Campus Compact Outstanding Faculty Award for her civic engagement pedagogy.  She has had numerous solo, two-person and group exhibitions regionally, nationally, and  internationally.  In 2015 she won honorable mention in the 8th Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale in Korea.

“Professors Apps, Dugas, Fletcher and Lindley are extraordinary teachers,” said Provost Mickey McDonald. “And each has a deep commitment to scholarship and service, to the art and science of learning, and to the achievement of educational outcomes students can long apply to successful living.”

K Students Excel in a Japanese Speech Contest

K Students Study JapaneseThe heritages of sophomore YoungHoon (Richard) Kim and senior Jie Xu are rooted in Korea and China, respectively. Both students are also fluent in English. And both recently excelled in a competition featuring the language of fourth country–Japan. YoungHoon won the Consul General Special Prize in the annual Michigan Japanese Speech Contest, held at Wayne State University last week.  His speech was titled “I Don’t Like Him.”  In it, he expressed his ambivalent feelings about Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, considered by many a potential winner of a Nobel Prize for literature. YoungHoon’s extensive knowledge of modern Japanese literature impressed the audience. Jie was a finalist in the speech contest. In her talk, “Preserving Traditional Chinese Art,” she discussed how a pottery class she took at K in her first year provided her an opportunity to rediscover the pottery and the tea ceremony that are part of her Chinese heritage. That renewal, in turn, led her to expand her interest, geographically, to include the pottery and language of Japan.  Also of note, Jie passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) 2nd Level, a significant achievement for someone who has not participated in study abroad, according to assistant professor of Japanese Noriko Sugimori. K’s success in the speech contest was surely a team effort. Said Professor Sugimori: “We are particularly grateful to our Japanese teaching assistants—Yoji Hayashibe, Kaoru Ishida, and Reika Murakami—for their insightful feedback on the early drafts of YoungHoon and Jie’s speeches.” At K YoungHoon is majoring in East Asian studies and in philosophy; Jie is majoring in art. Pictured after the contest are (l-r): Ms. Takako Shibata, Japan Society of Detroit Women’s Club; Jie and YoungHoon; the Honorable Mr. Mitsuhiro Wada, Consul General of Japan in Detroit; and Professor Sugimori.

Eyewitness to History

Presidential Debate Between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford
Then-U.S. President Gerald Ford (right) and challenger Gov. Jimmy Carter debate in 1976.

Gail Raiman ’73 was interviewed for and appears in the documentary “Feeling Good About America: the 1976 Presidential Election.” The documentary, produced by the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia, has been airing across the country since October.

The election of 1976 was momentous in several ways. It was the first national election after the Watergate scandal. It was the national election occurring on the occasion of the country’s bicentennial celebration. Watergate had consumed the Nixon presidency (he resigned in August  1974), resulting in Gerald R. Ford becoming president. Ford had become vice president in October 1973 by congressional confirmation in the wake of Vice President Spiro Agnew’s corruption scandal and resignation.

In the 1976 election, Ford  the Republican candidate  was pitted against the relatively unknown former one-term governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter. Carter ran as a Washington outsider, a popular position in the post-Watergate era, and won a narrow victory.

Gail’s connection to Ford began before the 1976 election, going back to her sophomore year in 1971. She used that opportunity to intern on Capitol Hill for then-Congressman Ford, who at the time served as House minority leader. Gail worked in his Washington office’s constituent-relations group and made quite an impression. The Ford team suggested she continue to work in the office while finishing her undergraduate degree at a college or university in Washington, D.C.

Instead, Gail returned to K, completed her degree (philosophy) in June 1973 and took a summer job in Ford’s Grand Rapids district office. Several times that summer Ford personally asked Gail to consider taking a permanent job in his office. She declined in favor of her plan to earn a doctorate and teach. That fall she started graduate school, but she wasn’t there long.

“I suddenly realized that I wanted to ‘make a difference,’ ” Gail said, “though I didn’t know what that meant. At the time I didn’t imagine it meant returning to work for Congressman Ford.”

Gerald Ford Campaign ButtonGail came home from grad school to Grand Rapids. “My  immediate future was a complete mystery to me,” she said. “Four days later history intervened with the resignation of Vice President Agnew. President Nixon then named Gerald Ford as vice president-designate, and several phone calls later, I was on my way to Washington to work on Ford’s confirmation hearings for the vice presidency.”

Ford asked Gail to join his vice presidential staff and she did. Eight months later, when Nixon resigned and Ford became president, Ford asked Gail to be a member of his White House staff. She worked in the West Wing throughout his term. “My White House portfolio included media relations, communications, politics and continuous crisis management the perfect storm.”

In early 2016 Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics, inquired whether Gail would be interviewed for the documentary. His request made sense. “I’d had a front-row seat to the 1976 campaign while on the White House staff,” Gail explained. “I also worked as a member of the president’s staff at the 1976 Republican National Convention.”

That convention was memorable. It was the last Republican convention in which a candidate had not been chosen by the outset. Ford and former California Gov. Ronald Reagan were the front runners, with Reagan representing the conservative wing of the party. During maneuvering at the Convention, Mississippi swung from Reagan to Ford on the first ballot, pushing him just past the delegate threshold needed to win the nomination.

K Trustee Gail Raiman
K trustee Gail Raiman at the 2013 commencement

The documentary concludes that the election of 1976 was a needful tonic for the country. America felt good about Ford and Carter for good reason; they were the right people at the right time, helping us once again “feel good about America.”

That history comes alive, in part, through the film’s interviews, which include, among many others, Walter Mondale, Jack Ford, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Stuart K. Spencer and Gail Raiman ’73.

Gail’s inclusion in the film is not her only honor relative to her association with Ford. She also has been asked to serve as a judge for the 2016 Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency. With this annual award, Ford wanted to recognize and encourage thoughtful, insightful and enterprising work by journalists covering the presidency and national defense.

As in past years, two $5,000 prizes will be awarded, one for distinguished achievement in reporting on the presidency, and another on national defense during the 2016 calendar year. The awards will be presented in Washington, D.C., in June at the annual meeting of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation.