In this issue: Summer 2015
Campus News: Alma Matters
Forensic invention
TCU engineering students build a bone-processing machine to speed up the extraction of DNA from human remains.
Features, Research + Discovery
Culture, Diversity and Immigration in France
Caitlin McAteer traveled to Béziers, France and volunteered at a migrant-serving organization to better understand the complex issues of transnational migration.
Alumni
Allene Jones ’63
1933-2015
In September 1962, Allene Parks Jones was a registered nurse. She was working at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in south Fort Worth when she learned TCU planned to integrate. Dressed in a short-sleeved yellow dress and heels the color of straw, 29-year-old Jones was older than most students. While a few stole glances
Campus News: Alma Matters
Faculty Q & A: Susan Weeks
The longtime professor named dean of Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences. She is also director of the Center for Evidence Based Practice and Research: A Collaborating Center of the Joanna Briggs Institute.
Alumni
A man, the moon and a volcano
Hawaii teacher Justin Brown ’09 and his robotics program students are helping NASA test technology to repel lunar dust.
Features, Research + Discovery
Cancer Across the Language Barrier
Joselin Barajas learned from an illness in her family that cancer care is not always a culturally sensitive affair. Her pain management research could improve outcomes for Mexican-Americans, especially for her father.
Alumni
Hosting with the most
As digital production becomes central in hospitality, event planner Amy Shackelford ’00 says the job is the same — to provide great experiences.
Features, Research + Discovery
Bailey Betik’s Fascination with Words
The English major wrote several undergraduate research projects, called the activity “being in a long-term relationship with your mind.”
Features, Research + Discovery
The Case of the Disappearing Groundwater
Sharra Blair-Kucera left a 20-year career in manufacturing to study water conservation and resource management. She found that Texas is running out of groundwater.
Features
Communicating Genetic Testing
Ashlyn Lisner ’15 wanted to find which communication techniques would encourage people to seek answers to genetic uncertainties.
Alumni
2015 Alumni Awards
The TCU Alumni Association recognized these recipients at Leadership Weekend in April.
Features, Research + Discovery
Engineering a Possible Diabetes Treatment
Lauren Getz is working to coat pancreatic islet cells in hopes of improving treatment of Type 1 diabetes.
Alumni
How to teach the birds & the bees
Martha Roper is considered one of the nation’s foremost teachers of sex education.
Alumni
Your Own Words
What was your most memorable summer experience during your college days?
Alumni
Howard Payne ’48
1925-2015
Donning a velvet purple suit and hat every December, Howard Payne was TCU’s Santa Claus, spreading cheer before finals, to a generation of Horned Frogs from the 1980s to 2010s. He died in June at the age of 90. Alongside wife Mildred Erby Payne, who portrayed Mrs. Claus, he made his annual entrance at the
Features, Research + Discovery
Spiders as Mercury Contaminators
Are spiders a missing link as toxic mercury moves from water onto land?
Alumni
Carlos Gonzalez ’63 (MS) ’67 (Ph.D.)
1933-2015
Carlos “Chuck” Gonzalez ’63 (MS) ’67 (Ph.D.), a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve in Vietnam, defended one of the first doctoral dissertations in chemistry at TCU. He died in January after battling lung cancer. The research chemist and professor was the son of Spanish immigrants. He grew up in Manhattan, near the edge of
Campus News: Alma Matters
Spring Breakout
Forget South Padre. Spring Break has become an intensified mini-mester of out-of-classroom learning, often overseas.
Alumni
Teaming up again
Buffalo Bills star Jerry Hughes ’10 made the first of what will be an annual $15,000 donation to support his former teammate Joseph Turner ’10, who recently took over head coaching duties at Fort Worth’s historic North Side High School.
Features, Research + Discovery
The Genetics of Anthrax
Kevin Claunch ’14 postponed medical school to do research in microbiology. His work might lead to medicines able to disarm anthrax or even common staph infections.
Features, Research + Discovery
The Other Silk Road
Wesley Lacson ’15 conducted research on the Silk Road marketplace from a business perspective.
Campus News: Alma Matters
What date (or event) most changed the course of history?
Eight faculty members answer the question.
Campus News: Alma Matters
Window to the soul
Brite Divinity School anniversary stained glass window
Research + Discovery