Inside this issue …

• As UofL’s storyteller, President Gerry Bradley is turning the page. Discover everything you didn’t know about the university’s 20th president in  by Michael Jester ’19.
• A cross-collaborative team of UofL researchers and engineers illuminates how they’re working together to turn a common childhood ailment on its ear in  by Betty Coffman ’83.
• Celebrate the history and future of the J.B. Speed School of Engineering in its centennial year, plus, see its brand-new building on Belknap Campus in  by Michael Phillips ’14, ’18,
• A program for students is helping Cardinals turn classroom learning into real-world service in communities at home and abroad. Learn how in  by Audrie Lamb.
• Hear how a professor, a painter and a student adapted UofL’s ancient Roman goddess for the modern age in  by Caitlin Brooks ’15, ’18.

As of 2024, UofL Magazine has moved to two issues per year – one edition for spring/summer and another for fall/winter.

ACT I: Prologue

[A kind figure enters stage left on a bare, dim stage – then, a spotlight illuminates them]

NARRATOR: Empathy is a skill. (pause)

And thanks to an innovative partnership between the University of Louisville and justice organizations throughout Kentucky, law enforcement officers are learning it firsthand through the power of acting.

A collaboration between the and departments in the , along with community partners, positions UofL as a leader in victim-centered advocacy. By using actors to train officers in compassionate and sensitive interview techniques, UofL is helping reshape how victims of sexual assault are supported.

ACT I: Scene One

Ext. A backyard in Louisville, Kentucky

NARRATOR: It all started at a backyard barbecue in 2017 when Rachel Carter, associate professor of acting and voice; her partner Ted Carter, a simulation educator; and Bradley Campbell, associate professor of criminal justice and faculty member of the , began to talk about how simulation is used in the medical field.

They discussed how standardized patient training – actors portraying realistic medical scenarios – enhances medical students’ empathy and communication, allows them to practice classroom skills in a safe environment and leads to improved patient care. What if this approach was used with law enforcement? What if officers could train with actors to learn how to interact with trauma victims? Imagine the potential impact on real survivors, they pondered.

BRADLEY CAMPBELL: Research shows that if sexual assault survivors feel they were treated well and engaged in the process and given a voice, they are more likely to continue to engage. They are more likely to say they would report future crimes to the police, and they are more likely to tell other people to report those crimes to the police.

NARRATOR: Thus, over grilled foods and disposable dishes, a partnership between the theatre arts and criminal justice departments was created, leading to classroom training that emphasizes victim-centered and trauma-informed interview techniques.

ACT I: Scene Two

Int. An office in UofL’s Bigelow Hall

NARRATOR: The core idea behind the training is to equip law enforcement officers with both the knowledge and practical skills needed for victim-centered interviewing, all within a safe, controlled environment.

To bring this to life, Campbell partnered with Jim Root, an instructor at the Department of Criminal Justice Training under the Kentucky Justice & Public Safety Cabinet. Their collaboration involved months of research delving into trauma, neurobiology and the impact of questioning on the brain. The result is a comprehensive three-day training program designed to teach officers cognitive interviewing techniques, help them foster a deeper understanding of sexual assault survivors’ experiences and highlight the effects of trauma on memory. A crucial component of this training is the shift from closed-ended questions to open-ended, sensory-based questions. This approach acknowledges that trauma often disrupts a victim’s ability to recall events in chronological order.

JIM ROOT: In high school or when you were in journalism school, you are taught “Tell me your story from beginning to end.” Victims of trauma can’t do that. Their brain does not hold the information in a linear model. We explain in the training why that’s happening to people who have been victimized in trauma. And officers get it because we also experience critical incidents throughout our career.

NARRATOR: These investigative techniques are designed to minimize secondary trauma, which can occur when victims are forced to relive their experiences. Ultimately, Campbell emphasizes that acknowledging the trauma and treating survivors with empathy fosters a sense of collaboration between the survivor and the investigator.

BRADLEY CAMPBELL: The goal of the training is to ensure survivors are treated with respect and compassion, ultimately leaving the interview feeling supported and heard by the justice system.

ACT II: Scene One

Int. A welcoming space outfitted with comfortable chairs and a desk

NARRATOR: Traditional police training sometimes relies on fellow officers or instructors who have worked in policing for an extended period of time. That’s where Carter and the performers brought a crucial shift. Carter’s role lies in training standardized performers to authentically portray sexual assault survivors. This work, rooted in applied drama, creates a space for exploration where officers can practice skills and explore new approaches.

RACHEL CARTER: We created the survivor character with specific acting prompts detailing breath and vocal and physical choices so that performers could enter the survivor character for the simulation – but also created a ritual process for stepping out of that character.

NARRATOR: To ensure the wellbeing of the actors, they are debriefed after each simulated interview and at the end of each training day. Screening and clear communication about the nature of the role are also essential beforehand. Briana Linney ’18, ’23, whose social work experience has exposed her to numerous trauma survivors, brings a unique perspective to the role.

BRIANA LINNEY: I’ve been able to kind of mimic what trauma may look like for someone who (is not) in the moment of the trauma, but they have experienced it and depending on how you continue the conversation, they may shut down. They may get guarded. They feel judged. I keep that all in mind.

NARRATOR: The actors work from a highly realistic script, informed by actual police reports and input from sexual assault survivors, Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs and other victim advocates. The commitment to authenticity is reflected in the feedback.

BRADLEY CAMPBELL: We have officers rank on a scale of 1 to 6 on how real your simulation felt and right now on a scale of 1 to 6, we are at a 5.8. The most important part is that not one person has said it is not a realistic simulation.

NARRATOR: The interview’s direction is dictated by the officer’s questions and actions. The actors are given “beats,” or shifts in the scene’s progression, based on the interaction. If an officer asks an interviewee to “start from the beginning,” the actor might portray confusion and avoid eye contact. Conversely, an officer who acknowledges the interviewee’s pain might see the actor’s breathing slow down and the actor begin to relax.

Aliyah Brutley ’21 views this type of acting gig as a powerful way to impact the community.

ALIYAH BRUTLEY: You can definitely see the difference in compassion. I can see them even hesitating or pausing before asking a question. I’ve had one man who recanted his statement in the middle of the training because he asked a “why” question which can be triggering for victims. In real time you are seeing them try to be respectful and mindful.

NARRATOR: The training’s success is rooted in collaboration with community partners. Victim advocates, such as the Army National Guard’s sexual assault prevention specialist Michelle Kuiper, played a crucial role in shaping the training’s direction and authenticity by connecting with other survivors.

MICHELLE KUIPER: It was important to bring to the table people who went through different types of crimes – all sexual assaults – but from different walks of life, whether that was through an LGBTQ+ lens, childhood trauma, someone who knew the person who assaulted them or someone who didn’t.

NARRATOR: Community partners, including Robyn Diez d’Aux, executive director of the Office of Victims Advocacy in the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, also highlighted the broader impact of the collaboration.

ROBYN DIEZ D’AUX: Our law enforcement partners have told us just how valuable these trainings are. In many cases, they are the difference between solving cases and cases growing cold. Training officers through actor-portrayed simulation is the most accurate way to educate without re-victimizing survivors of crime. Providing law enforcement the opportunity to fine-tune their interview skills in the safety of an actor-portrayed simulation creates confident and informed officers who are better equipped to not only serve victims but also help prosecute.

ACT III: Final Scene

Int. A bare stage, Narrator in the spotlight’s pool

NARRATOR: The project initially received support through a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice agency. Campbell and Carter published their research in 2022.

The next pivotal step involves establishing the Center for Training, Research, and Innovative Simulation (TRAINS). Housed within the Southern Police Institute, TRAINS will leverage human-based simulation, virtual reality and other cutting-edge methods to enhance the effectiveness of criminal justice professionals. Michael Bassi, director of the Southern Police Institute, said the center will offer research and evaluation services to agencies at the local, state and national levels, while also fostering crucial cross-disciplinary collaboration.

(Bassi moves into spotlight)

MICHAEL BASSI: This (training) allows for a very, very realistic training that we really can’t recreate in any other way, and it allows us to increase our access to the industry that we serve. It’s also giving the students at UofL an exposure to all kinds of different and interesting types of education and training. It’s a great opportunity for everybody.

NARRATOR: TRAINS was made possible in part by a generous donation from Ed Pocock with the J. Allen Lamb & Edward S. Pocock III Foundation. Moving forward, the center will be self-sustaining through course registrations.

To prepare students for the specialized work conducted at TRAINS, the theatre arts department plans to offer a new course in acting for human-based training simulations. This initiative provides graduates with valuable, marketable skills and the potential to expand their career opportunities.

For Carter and Campbell, the mission remains clear: continue conducting research-driven work that positively impacts both survivors and law enforcement officers.

(Carter moves into the spotlight)

RACHEL CARTER: My hope is that this training changes the way law enforcement handles victim interviews, specifically interviews with sexual assault survivors. And that it encourages victims to trust law enforcement with their cases. I’ve had performers report in the debrief how touched they were when a law enforcement officer tells them they believe them. That should be the standard. I’m most proud when I hear an investigator say that this training will change or has changed how they approach victim interviews. Because that’s the goal.

[Lights dim. End.]

*If you or someone you know on campus has been impacted by interpersonal violence, assault or stalking, the is an available advocacy resource for students, faculty and staff.

Explore more stories from the spring/summer 2025 issue of UofL Magazine

These may all sound as related as apples and oranges, but each is just one area of study that collectively make up the cornucopia of specialized education programming overflowing at the University of Louisville.

Concerns about tuition costs, student debt and the return on investment of a college degree have many Americans questioning the value of a college education. However, colleges are not only providing students with aid to help make it accessible and affordable – like the Cardinal Commitment Grant which offers up to 100% of tuition coverage for eligible students – but they are also offering students countless opportunities to make their time spent earning a degree directly beneficial to their careers.

It is now more important than ever for schools to expand and grow curriculum that directly benefits students and fills the needs of the workforce and community. To evolve and help set students on a direct path to success, UofL is building unique minors, professional certificates and stackable certificates that meet students where they are, whether they’re first-time students aiming for a well-rounded college experience, alumni wishing to expand their education or professionals looking to gain an edge. These programs provide students with hard skills needed to be successful in their professions, valuable connections that can kickstart their careers and a competitive boost as they enter the workforce or advance in their careers.

Minor details, major opportunities

Many students often complement their primary area of study with a minor, a non-degree area of academic focus that provides a more well-rounded education.

As modern students take increasing ownership of their learning opportunities, some are even influencing departments to implement new minors to meet their specific goals through an interdisciplinary approach.

Some of these students, like Cishella Durling ’24, come from the liberal studies program in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), which offers an individualized major. Durling’s focus on disability studies in her individualized major and other students’ interest sparked the creation of disability resources as an official new minor through a collaboration between A&S and the College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development.

Andreas Elpidorou, director of the liberal studies program, works with students to create programs that fulfill their needs. He says that the disability resources minor is a combination of philosophy, sociology, education and interpretive studies, and teaches students ethical and advocacy skills with a practical and foundational approach. The minor can serve as a credential for students interested in social policy, social work, education and more.

“Students interested in becoming counselors or therapists, or working in disability rights advocacy, healthcare, special education … this will be a great starting point for them as they consider their career path,” Elpidorou said. “This minor is a way of augmenting students’ abilities, something that can give them a more nuanced understanding of disabilities and enhance their treatment of patients, students and people with disabilities.”

Junior Mallory Carr is studying early elementary education and was inspired to take the disability resources minor by a student with a disability in her summer daycare class. Carr hopes to be a first- or second-grade teacher after she graduates in 2026 and says the minor will make her job a bit easier as a teacher.

“I learned a lot from (my daycare student) and his family which made me want to learn more and be able to do more for him and others like him,” Carr said. “This minor is giving me the knowledge needed to help the students in my general education classroom so I can be more prepared to evaluate and refer students for special education testing. It is educating me more on the things that are going on in the minds of students on (Individualized ����ֱ�� Programs) and gives me the knowledge to help my students succeed and grow.”

Elsewhere, at the College of Business, students interested in real estate development can build a better understanding of the field through the recently launched real estate minor. The minor is interdisciplinary, with ties to the J.B. Speed School of Engineering and Brandeis School of Law, and includes classes on real estate law, economics, finance, investments and development. Professor of real estate finance Patrick Nessenthaler says the program works with the Kentucky Real Estate Commission (KREC) and gives students opportunities to gain real-world experience through internship opportunities and mentorship connections with professionals in the field.

Joseph Woodruff ’24 majored in finance with a minor in real estate and now works as a development coordinator for LDG Development, developing affordable housing multifamily communities in North Carolina.

“I took the first class offered but was not planning on finishing the minor because I graduated too early to complete the full program,” Woodruff said. “After taking the first class … I was hooked and ended up staying an extra semester at UofL to take the entire real estate curriculum.”

UofL also partners with KREC to offer students two undergraduate classes within A&S that allow students to meet the Kentucky Real Estate License exam education requirement for sales associates when completed.

Learning the hard skills needed to succeed in a career and gaining knowledge that students will use in their every day job makes these minors and certificates invaluable to students.

Certified for success

UofL’s commitment to boosting students’ skills and educational opportunities also extends beyond minors to professional certificates like the healthcare leadership and LGBTQ+ health studies certificates.

Anastasia Miller serves as the healthcare leadership certificate program director and said it was crafted to fill a void for adult students interested in working in any aspect of healthcare. Through the program, students learn modern, up-to-date curriculum on healthcare project management, human resources, finance, evaluation and more.

“Healthcare is not just a hospital, so we prepare students to succeed in a leadership role in any healthcare setting. Students get very applicable assignments, like what to do in case of a ransomware attack, which (is something that isn’t) always updated in normal academia,” Miller said. “It’s not just discussion boards – this is mixed with a real-world setting.”

Miller said the flexibility of being an online student is invaluable to the success of adult students who may be balancing things like full-time work, raising children or other commitments. “Our program has mostly working adults,” she said,” so it’s really better for them if they need to take their time and navigate life’s changes.”

UofL also offers stackable online certificates that allow students to acquire specialized knowledge in a specific field or discipline. These customized certificates allow students to build their expertise gradually, rather than pursuing a traditional linear degree pathway as each certificate can be earned as a standalone credential and/or as a step toward a future degree. The flexibility of stackable certificates offers students a continuous learning mindset that gives professionals the ability to adapt and keep up with industry changes.

Setting Cardinals apart

The real-world knowledge and opportunities these unique minors and certificates offer empower students to advance in their careers – on their own terms. 

“The financial modeling taught in the real estate minor was incredibly beneficial to me in my work,” Woodruff said. “Understanding the underwriting in commercial real estate is not only important, but essential to making educated decisions. The financial modeling taught in this program gave me a head start, and an understanding better than some of my colleagues with many years in the business.”

Learning the hard skills needed to succeed in a career and gaining knowledge that students will use in their every day job makes these minors and certificates invaluable to students.

Carr said this direct knowledge made the decision to minor in disability resources an easy one.

“No other minor offered me things that I would be able to use every day in my career,” she said. 

Marie Miller is earning her certificate in healthcare leadership through UofL online programs and works in clinical implementation at Humana. She said the real-world application of the program is vital to her work.

“I’m living it daily,” she said, “and can speak to the fact that it supports the type of leadership needed in the environment I work in every day.”

These programs are not only providing students with the hard skills needed for a particular field. Woodruff said they also give students the soft skills and connections needed to succeed and advance.

“An important lesson I learned from the real estate minor was that real estate is a business of relationships and knowing yourself,” he said. “Being mathematically capable can only get you so far, and relationships are where deals are made – and jobs are found.”

Woodruff credits Nessenthaler and the real estate minor curriculum for getting him where he is today in his career.

“I only knew about LDG Development through an introduction facilitated by (Nessenthaler). I think the work done to ensure the real estate minor is not limited to the classroom but includes discussion and support from real estate companies throughout Louisville is a characteristic that sets the program apart,” Woodruff said. “The real estate minor provided me the opportunity for multiple job interviews and one-on-one discussions with real estate professionals that I otherwise would not have been exposed to.”

Marie Miller echoes Woodruff in recognizing the value of these programs and meeting students evolving needs.

“The classes in this certificate help me navigate situations in my current role, and it also opened the door for my most recent promotion,” she said, “effectively giving me more opportunities now and (allowing) me to be considered for more advanced roles in the future.” 

These minors and certificates are not only giving students a holistic, well-rounded education, they are also helping them prepare for and excel in their careers, no matter their discipline. As these programs and more continue to grow, UofL remains dedicated to filling the needs of its students and communities to help build a better world here and beyond.

“We want students to stay in Louisville, but also make an impact beyond our community and state, globally,” Nessenthaler said. “We’re very excited about that.”

Explore more stories from the spring/summer 2025 issue of UofL Magazine

Since the early 2000s, millions of people have taken advantage of at-home DNA testing available through companies like AncestryDNA to learn about their family histories and gain clues to their ancestors’ origins.

Associate Professor of Anthropology Christopher Tillquist uses the same types of genetic data to research human migration across centuries and millennia. Tillquist uses living peoples’ genes to verify or refute the misty origin stories of an area’s founders. He scours DNA to dig deep into time to learn about an area’s founders, as well as the impact of historical events on an area’s population.

As an evolutionary anthropologist, Tillquist uses population genetics and evolutionary theory to document how history can be traced through people’s genes.

“I’m essentially a genetic detective,” Tillquist said. “I use DNA from living people to test the stories we’ve told ourselves about who founded different populations and how historical events shaped the genetic makeup of regions.”

While he studies populations around the globe, his recent research aligns with his interest in his own family history.

“My ancestors on both sides come from Sweden and Norway,” Tillquist said. “I’ve always been fascinated by how my Scandinavian background shapes my worldview and social interactions. As an anthropologist, I’m constantly observing these cultural influences, and they’ve definitely inspired my research direction.”

His most recent published study examines the current population of the Faroe Islands, a remote island group in the North Atlantic west of Norway said to have been settled by a Viking chief in the 9th or 10^th century – but the genetic evidence tells a more nuanced story.

Following DNA’s breadcrumbs

To document the Faroes founders through modern DNA research, Tillquist used data from living residents’ Y chromosomes. Since these chromosomes pass exclusively from fathers to sons, they provide an unbroken genetic line through male ancestry.

Y chromosomes carry genetic patterns than can be traced to deep origins in various parts of the world as well as evidence of more recent mutations. Like breadcrumbs left to retrace your footsteps, these genetic patterns give Tillquist clues to the origins of people who founded a population and the influence of others who passed through the place over time.

Legend and geographic proximity would indicate that Vikings settled both the Faroe Islands and Iceland. Because of their remote and relatively isolated locations, the island countries’ founding fathers’ genes would be expected to be preserved in the present inhabitants, giving Tillquist a clearer picture of their genetic origins than a more well-visited location.

Tillquist and his colleagues – former graduate student Allison E. Mann ’09, ’12, now assistant professor at the University of Wyoming, and a Faroese researcher, Eyðfinn Magnussen, associate professor at the University of the Faroe Islands – analyzed de-identified Y chromosome data sampled from males living in the Faroes and Iceland. They compared two categories of genetic markers in those samples with data from residents of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Ireland to tease out the origins of the founding fathers.

The two types of markers used were haplotypes and haplogroups. Haplogroups are classifications based on specific mutations known as single nucleotide polymorphisms that can reveal a general geographic origin, like the Middle East, Africa or northern Europe from deep in the past. DNA researchers have classified roughly 20 major haplogroups for the world’s population by letter, with numbers added to distinguish subgroups.

Haplotypes, another category of genetic markers, are short tandem repeats in specific locations on the DNA, called microsatellites. Similar patterns in microsatellites are classified into haplotypes, which reveal more recent and more specific heritage than haplogroups.

While most researchers use microsatellites to study genetic variation in populations a few hundred years old, such as the Faroes settlement, Tillquist took a slightly different approach. He looked at the microsatellites in the context of their haplogroup, giving a more accurate picture of the population’s diversity than microsatellites alone.

“So, we looked at it by haplogroup first, then from there you can have a better idea of how diverse things really are,” Tillquist said. “Even if you have a relatively diverse looking population, if you split it out by haplogroup then you get a better fix of what is the true relative variability of the microsatellites.”

We’re all walking historical documents. Our DNA tells stories our written records never captured – it’s just a matter of learning how to read them.

Not surprisingly, the men’s genes indicated both the Faroe Islands and Iceland indeed were founded largely by people from Scandinavia. The surprising aspect was that the populations originated from different founding groups, with Faroe Islands founders showing less relation to Ireland and more to Norway than did Iceland, although both areas’ founding fathers came mostly from Denmark and Norway.

Tillquist is investigating other island populations as well. His next paper will look at diversity in mitochondrial DNA on the Shetland Islands, off the northern coast of Scotland. The mitochondrial genome is passed on exclusively through maternal lines.

Evolving the evolution simulation

Ultimately, Tillquist hopes to use knowledge gained from the less-complex island populations to develop simulation techniques that will allow him to genetically trace the peopling of Europe.

“My long-term interest is to figure out Europe. There have been thousands of migrations in Europe. Which ones have made lasting impacts? The population structure seems very stable now, but I want to know how it got that way,” Tillquist said.

“Are we seeing genetic patterns established 15,000 years ago or 1,000 years ago? Did the Mongol invasions permanently alter European genomes or were they genetically insignificant? The Viking expansions clearly left their mark, but what about the impact of the Goths, who ultimately played roles in the history of the Roman empire? I’m hopeful that we can detect this type of historical movement in today’s DNA.”

Tillquist plans to use an innovative approach, combining forward-looking and backward-looking simulation techniques to understand how evolutionary processes and historical events shaped a population’s genetics.

“In the forward model, we create a founding population and simulate various historical events through generations,” he said. “Then we use backward methods, sampling today’s populations and applying computational models to work back through time to assess the fit of the sampled data to the models. By comparing both approaches, we can triangulate what really happened with much greater confidence.”

This methodology has the potential to transform the understanding of European genetic history and rewrite aspects of the historical narrative.

Whether applied to the population of a continent or an individual, Tillquist’s research demonstrates how our DNA carries the stories of countless ancestors and historical events that shaped our genetic identity.

“We’re all walking historical documents,” Tillquist said. “Our DNA tells stories our written records never captured – it’s just a matter of learning how to read them.”

Explore more stories from the spring/summer 2025 issue of UofL Magazine

Since September 2024, the Boden triplets have been doubly defying those odds as assistant professors in the School of Medicine’s department of orthopedic surgery and orthopedic surgeons at UofL Health. Their collective specialties – Lauren, spine care; Stephanie, sports medicine and shoulder; Allison, foot and ankle – cover an impressive portion of the human body.

Medicine is in their bones

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, the Boden sisters relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, and spent their first 18 years growing up there. All three women were raised by multiple role models for a career in medicine, including both parents, maternal grandparents and numerous aunts and uncles.

For Stephanie, that environment was inspiring. “I was drawn to medicine because it combines my passions of teamwork, teaching and caring for people,” she said. “It meant I got to see what it looked like to truly care about your job and get to make a difference in patient’s lives.” As a former college athlete, sports medicine was appealing to her because “it is hands-on, team-oriented and allows me the privilege of helping athletes and patients of all ages and ability levels regain strength and function to get them back to the activities they love.”

Lauren grew up knowing she wanted to be a part of “the family business.” She enjoyed all her medical rotations but fell in love with orthopedics and never looked back. “I love being in the (operating room) and making a direct improvement in my patient’s pain and level of function.”

Allison’s initial interest in orthopedics began in college when she shadowed orthopedic trauma surgeons for over 100 hours during the summer between her junior and senior years, where she discovered she loved the operating room. “I would be in cases that lasted four-five hours at a time and never looked at the time,” she said. “I loved how the surgeons had to work together to finish the case, and I was enamored with the feeling that the surgeons were able to fix problems and see the immediate impact surgery had on the patients.”

Upon relocating to Louisville, Kentucky, the Boden sisters said they have been heartily welcomed by the UofL community and have found their niches. Despite different orthopedic specialties, all three mentioned they truly value an academic job with the ability to teach and do research in addition to taking care of patients.

“It checks all the boxes,” Stephanie said. “This position allows me to take excellent care of patients, collaborate with colleagues on patient care and research, work with residents and medical students, and start a family in a place that feels like home.”

“The UofL orthopedic surgery department … was a great fit because it is a department that really focuses on patient care and medical student and resident teaching,” Lauren said.

For Allison, the job not only fulfilled her career aspirations, but offered her the rare opportunity to work as a team once more with her best friends, aka her sisters. “I was thrilled with the opportunity to be hired with my siblings as part of a growing department,” she said.

Three on a match

After growing up in Atlanta, the sisters were apart for the first time when they embarked on residencies and fellowships in different cities and medical facilities. After six years of separation, the siblings are enjoying working together and exploring their new hometown of Louisville – a community that suits them well and which all three are thrilled to be a part of.

Stephanie is discovering Louisville’s great food scene, while Lauren is appreciating the wide-ranging bourbon options and patiently awaiting baseball season. Allison looks forward to golfing and experienced her first Derby this spring. The sisters also have discovered Louisville treasures like St. James Court Art Show in Old Louisville and the Jack O’Lantern Spectacular at Iroquois Park, while enjoying soccer games, walking trails, new restaurants and even joining a pickleball league.

“My sisters and I work so well together, and it has been so much fun getting to work together, help each other and be close to family as we all start our careers,” Stephanie said.

“I never thought it would be possible that one department would be able to hire all three of us, but we jumped at the opportunity to work together,” Lauren said.

Allison said she is happy to have her biggest supporters with her on this new journey. “The time after finishing training is always stressful. Starting a new job, moving to a new city … I can’t imagine doing this without them here by my side.”

Explore more stories from the spring/summer 2025 issue of UofL Magazine

In 1985, celebrated Polish composer and conductor Witold Lutoslawski arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, to accept the very first Grawemeyer Award – a six-figure prize for an outstanding composition by a living composer in a large musical genre that premiered during the previous five years. Chosen from a pool of 225 entries from 18 countries, Lutoslawki’s Symphony No. 3 was first performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra two years before.

After accepting his award, Lutoslawski conducted Louisville Symphony’s performance of Symphony No. 3, following in the footsteps of composers including Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinski and Virgil Thomson who also directed Louisville Symphony’s performances of their work.

“Nothing this university has done has ever had such far-reaching effects,” said Jerry Ball, the School of Music dean at that time. “Despite the basketball craze and the fame our team has won for us, I doubt it has stirred up curiosity in foreign lands the same way the Grawemeyer Award has.”

The success of the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition paved the way for four other Grawemeyer Awards: Ideas Improving World Order in 1988, ����ֱ�� in 1989, Religion (a prize given jointly with the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary) in 1990 and Psychology in 2001. All five $100,000 awards follow the vision of H. Charles Grawemeyer ’34, who provided the $9 million endowment to honor publicly accessible ideas and compositions that can make the world better.

And all five have had far-reaching effects.

Lutoslawski set the pattern of many Grawemeyer Award winners when he dedicated his prize money for the benefit of others, such as provided funding to young Polish composers to travel outside Poland. “It is so important for younger composers to go abroad,” he said, “not just for study, but to see and hear as much as possible.”

Fiona Terry, who won the 2006 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order, was the beneficiary of an earlier Grawemeyer Award. The winner of world order award in 1995, Australian politician Gareth Evans, used his prize money to create a fund to support innovative thinking about peace building and cooperative security, a fund that supported Terry’s doctoral dissertation research at Australian National University. That research became the foundation of her prize-winning book, “Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action,” which showed how humanitarian aid could be misused.

“Nothing this university has done has ever had such far-reaching effects. Despite the basketball craze and the fame our team has won for us, I doubt it has stirred up curiosity in foreign lands the same way the Grawemeyer Award has.”

Grawemeyer Awards in ����ֱ�� continue to speak to contemporary concerns decades after the awards are given. Take James P. Comer’s 2007 ����ֱ�� Award for his school development program. The Yale University child psychiatry professor challenged the prevailing emphasis on testing and accountability with a program that coordinated parents, teachers and other school staff members, and community members into learning collaborations based on children’s stages of development. Hundreds of low-performing schools in the U.S. that adopted Comer’s school development program saw their student achievement rise, sometimes dramatically.

The effects of one of the earliest Grawemeyer Awards in Religion are still being experienced today. In 1993, Fordham University theology professor Elizabeth A. Johnson won the Grawemeyer Award in Religion for her seminal book, “She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse.” Johnson showed us that the language we use to talk about God affects how we think about God. Because such language has traditionally been masculine, we have thought about God as male, emphasizing obedience over relationship. Incorporating feminine dimensions of the divine encourages us to embrace God’s empathy, care and support. Johnson’s work helped inspire inclusive scripture translations, hymnals and prayers even as some religious groups doubled down on male language and authority.

Cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus won the 2005 Grawemeyer Award in Psychology for her studies that showed that memory is susceptible to suggestion. “Memory (does not work) like a recording device,” she said. “Memory works a little bit more like a Wikipedia page – you can go in there and change it, but so can other people.” This finding became particularly controversial in cases of memories recovered by alleged victims of trauma because true memories recovered from selective amnesia became hard to distinguish from memories of events that never happened. This discovery made Loftus a regular in courtrooms, the lecture circuit and on television programs including “NOVA” and “60 Minutes.”

In the 40 years since Lutoslawski accepted the inaugural Grawemeyer Award, the five collective awards have brought 164 renowned thinkers to campus, annually inspiring the university community, the city of Louisville and perpetually associating UofL with creative compositions and powerful ideas that persist.

2025 Grawemeyer Award Winners

Christian Mason | Music Composition

John M. Owen IV | World Order

Mark R. Warren | ����ֱ��

Rabbi Julia Watts Belser | Religion

James Gross | Psychology

Read more about the 2025 winners at

Explore more stories from the spring/summer 2025 issue of UofL Magazine

It’s a question that spans millennia, and one each society and people has sought to answer through language. The result is thousands upon thousands of unique words, describing feelings, emotions, moods and sensations – what we taste, touch, smell, hear and see.

The words vary, slightly, from culture to culture. What English-speakers might call “happiness,” for example, could be compared to the Japanese “shinrin-yoku,” literally translating to forest bathing to describe the joy of a walk in the woods. Or, to the Croatian “fjaka,” meaning the sweetness of doing nothing. The Icelandic word “sólarfrí”, or sun vacation, captures the elation you experience when you get an unexpected day off from work.

Understanding the origins and nuances of these words could shed new light on human experience around the world, said Brendan Depue, a neuroscientist at the University of Louisville.

To achieve that goal, he and colleague Tamara Newton joined the Human Affectome Project, a global interdisciplinary task force of 173 scientists from 24 countries aimed at exploring these emotional linguistics. The result of the intercontinental research was an integrative framework for emotions and moods that could serve as a common focal point for further studies of the affective sciences.

Simply put, the task force laid out a plan to universally talk about your feelings.

“One might think emotion is a universal thing, and biologically, it is,” said Depue, an assistant professor and endowed chair of behavioral brain imaging and neurobiology at the College of Arts and Sciences. “We’re all born with basically the same hardware – the brain. But culture and other experiential inputs differ, and how we express that through linguistics can in turn reinforce and shape how we experience it.”

THE BRAIN MAY BE STEERING THE SHIP, BUT EMOTION IS ONE OF THE MOST OVERTLY OBSERVABLE PARTS OF HUMANITY AND BEING HUMAN. I’VE ALWAYS BEEN INTERESTED IN WHY HUMANS DO WHAT THEY DO, AND EMOTION IS INSIGHT INTO THAT.
– Brendan Depue

Think of the human brain like a computer. It comes preprogrammed with certain software for emotions – six basic ones, in fact, giving us capacity for happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise. Through our unique experiences and cultures, we gain new software that adds nuance (say, fjaka for happiness) and degrees of intensity (say, rage as a more intense degree of anger).

“This new research is meant to make our understanding of emotion much more inclusive of all of those factors that can help shape it,” said Newton, a professor of psychological and brain sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences. “There are all of these factors affecting our experiences that research just hasn’t considered before, such as voice, gender, race and culture.”

The task force scoured data from some 4.5 million books to identify more than 3,600 words in them describing sensations, emotions and moods. Then, 12 teams of researchers from different countries worked to group those words and connect them to what we know about emotions and feelings from current neuroscience research. Depue and Newton were the only faculty from Kentucky universities to participate.

Each of the global teams tackled a different area of emotion, from anger to happiness to motivation. Depue’s group focused on understanding words describing fear, while Newton focused on ones describing social interactions. Each group had a mix of researchers from different disciplines, which Depue said gave new insight into how words describing emotions are shaped and, in turn, shape us.

For example, imagine you’re going to miss an important work deadline. Your brain might experience your heart pumping and your palms sweating and name that emotion as “fear.” Because your brain knows that word, it can reference the emotion going forward or even invoke it. If you think of the word “fear,” you might associate it with that heart-pumping feeling or work stress.

That is, while our brains choose the words that describe our emotions, those words can then affect the way the brain experiences them.

“The brain may be steering the ship, but emotion is one of the most overtly observable parts of humanity and being human,” Depue said. “I’ve always been interested in why humans do what they do, and emotion is insight into that.”

Current research on the brain and emotions is fragmented, Newton said. It’s studied in pockets and often doesn’t include all of the various ways of examining human experience – through psychological interviews, through word choice and, as with Depue, by looking at the physical structure of the brain.

Newton hopes projects like the Human Affectome will create a more holistic body of research that could have dramatic and wide-ranging impacts, such as more comprehensive mental health treatments and artificial intelligence programs that better emulate human emotions.

“Anything we can do to work against the fragmentation of science is useful,” she said. “Hopefully by pulling this research together, we can help other researchers look at this in a more holistic way.”

To read and learn more, take a look inside the .

Slayton’s struggle was not unique. According to the U.S. News & World Report, about 35 million people live in higher education deserts – areas with limited access to public colleges and universities.

To reduce barriers to college attendance and help strengthen communities in Kentucky – where the college-going rate is below the national average, the University of Louisville launched two new programs focused on preparing young students for college at home and across the commonwealth – including a college readiness coaches program Slayton is taking part in as a coach.

The goal is to boost the college-going rate of students in the state and help diminish the negative impact of education deserts, leading to more students earning degrees so they can boost their communities and local economies after graduation.

Finding an oasis

Research shows the further away someone lives from a college, the less likely they are to pursue a degree. Students from diverse backgrounds or lower-income families are particularly impacted by education deserts and other barriers to higher education.

“In Kentucky, there are a lot of counties declared as education deserts,” said Brandy Chamberlain, director of the college readiness coaches program through UofL’s Office of Online Learning. “So, what we looked at were counties that do not have more than two open-access higher education institutions within a 50-mile radius.”

The college readiness coaches program equips current UofL students with the knowledge and skills to help high school students across Kentucky prepare for what to expect throughout the college application and admission process. The student coaches travel to high schools to help answer questions about college from high schoolers, act as peer mentors and encourage students to continue into higher education, whether at UofL or other universities.

Now a senior majoring in criminal justice as part of the 3+3 accelerated law program at UofL, Slayton is empowering high school students to take on the college-going process with confidence.

“I had to do things on my own, so I hope to provide a sense of comfort for students to feel confident that they are doing the right thing,” Slayton said. “Seeing the excitement of these (hopefully) future Cardinals and helping them get their foot into the door of the college experience is really rewarding.”

Going back, giving back

LaRue County High School – Slayton’s alma mater – was the first to sign on for the program, which launched this fall. She returned to LaRue County every week during the fall semester to serve as the program’s first college readiness coach.

“Kennedy going back to LaRue County is hopefully going to show so many students that they can also be successful and access their own higher education,” Chamberlain said. “I hope the coaches are fulfilled knowing that they are making a difference in some people’s lives.”

“I want to be a guidepost, so students have direction and access to higher education, no matter where they decide to go or if it’s online,” Slayton said. “I’m excited to help students find the best continuing path for them and not stop at a high school diploma. I want to help get more of those first-generation students over the barrier of wondering ‘Is college for me?’ and let them know they do have a pathway to a successful and attainable future and help them find the right fit based on their individual goals and personality, not just where their friends go.”

The student coaches work closely with UofL’s admissions counselors to share information about financial aid, scholarships, academic programs, housing applications, meal plans and more. Coaches also help connect high school students with specific counselors, staff or faculty who are experts in the academic field the students want to study. Slayton said she hopes she can help fill the gap for high school counselors who are overworked with limited resources to encourage students to attend college.

“As a (high school) senior, I knew I was going to UofL. But not many people in LaRue County go to UofL, so the counselors were focused on other colleges,” Slayton said. “Students have asked me about my college experience in general, why I chose UofL, how I picked my major and where I live on campus, so it feels more like a big sister conversation than a staff-to-student conversation. That helps them open up to me so they can figure out the best path forward for them.”

Chamberlain aims to add five more coaches this year, with the ultimate goal of having a coach in every Kentucky county to create positive impacts on students and their communities across the commonwealth.

“The value I see in this is that when we uplift a person, we uplift their family,” Chamberlain said. “Maybe it’s a first-generation student, and then their cousin says, ‘Hey my cousin did this, maybe I can too.’ We’re hoping this builds a cycle and ripple effect of uplifting families and their communities to deplete education deserts.”

Cardinals Rising

UofL is also helping young students in its own backyard prepare for college through the new Cardinals Rising program.

Led by Daquarius Mahone, associate director of college readiness and student success, Cardinals Rising empowers local students and cultivates pathways to higher education through mentorship, intentional relationships and strategic investment. The program focuses on building a college-going culture among underserved, low-income and first-generation students in grades 8-12 by matching them with UofL student ambassadors who serve as mentors to help demystify the college process.

“Charity begins at home, so we’re starting with Jefferson County Public Schools. The goal is to produce students who contribute to our community and drive workforce development for the city and the state,” Mahone said. “We want to help reduce dropout rates and fill in those opportunity gaps to help students in eighth grade go all the way to graduation. We are the bridge to make sure those students make it through to high school graduation, to college graduation and on to their successful future and life.”

The program will provide year-round engagement, curriculum and ongoing student mentorship as a collaborative effort with UofL’s academic colleges and resources.

“We have an opportunity to bring about such a change in the lives of our future students, which affects the future of our community, our state and it begins with this,” Mahone said. “We are investing in the lives of young people.”

Planning the future

Cardinals Rising inspires young students to break the norm and begin thinking about college before they reach their junior or senior year of high school. Additionally, each spring, UofL encourages freshmen, sophomores and juniors to attend Think College Now, a half-day event to help students starting out on their college search.

With a campus tour, student panel, workshops on financial aid, student life and more, Think College Now gives students an opportunity to dip their toes into the college experience and begin planning their path to higher education.

These programs are just the beginning for students who are launching their futures through earning a degree.

“We’re building relationships and saying, ‘Hey, the University of Louisville cares, we’re here to help and it’s not us just saying come to UofL,’ ” Chamberlain said. “It’s us saying we care about you. We care about your future. We’re here to help you find what is the best fit for you.”

To read and learn more, take a look inside the .

In 2021, the University of Louisville’s Office of Community Engagement began giving one-time mini grants to faculty, staff and Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs) for a project that directly benefits a community through outreach, research or direct service.

Funded by the Gheens Foundation, the program provided mini grants ranging from $500 to $3,000 to more than 20 UofL faculty, staff and students in 2023. The projects – ranging from offering free health care screenings and administering oral health care to homebound patients to printmaking – are making an impact here in Louisville and beyond.

Douglas Craddock, vice president of community engagement at UofL, said the idea was born from connecting the community and university.

“It’s really speaking to the voice of what the community needs by providing funding behind that,” Craddock said. “So, they are mini grants, but we call them more so ‘seed-funding’ because they’re really meant to plant on that fertile ground that exists within the community to grow something larger and bigger.”

Bringing compassion to the community

Each grant is required to help underrepresented communities in Louisville, rural areas or internationally.

The Gheens Foundation was founded by Louisville native C. Edwin Gheens. The foundation aims to improve the quality of life for residents in Louisville and the Laforche and Terrebone parishes in Louisiana, according to its website.

A $598 Gheens grant allowed UofL’s Compassion Clinic – a student-run initiative that provides health screenings and education – to purchase tablets and collect data, according to Karen Krigger, a physician who helps lead the clinic.

“If you look at the data that we’ve collected in the city since 2007, when they first started collecting information about the social determinants of health and equity in the city of Louisville, we haven’t changed anything in any of the targeted areas,” Krigger said.

Now, thanks in part to the equipment purchased, the data collected by the clinic will be presented to Research!Louisville.

Through its volunteers, which include undergraduate and graduate students, staff and faculty, the Compassion Clinic aims to change that by providing health screenings, gun locks, NARCAN drug antidote kits and general education including baby safety and dental health.

The screenings not only benefit those who need them but also are training the future generation of health care workers to look at their community and the community needs.

“We’re training them to understand health inequities and to gather the data to move the needle,” Krigger said. “It’s important for them to understand the social determinants that prevent people from being healthy and maintaining longevity because we’re going into areas where the life expectancy is 10 to 12 years less than other areas of Jefferson County.”

Craddock said that projects such as the Compassion Clinic demonstrate the university’s investment in the local community.

“There’s a lack of trust from the community to larger institutions and organizations, so this type of work increases the validity,” Craddock said. “Also, that the university does not just feel that the community is here just to be here, but they’re part of the work that we do day in and day out across the board.”

Creating space for the arts

Other projects funded as part of the mini grants include training home care providers how to provide oral hygiene to homebound patients and a project in which urban and public affairs graduate students will help determine the best community use of the Arts and Enrichment Center in Charlestown, Indiana.

“Oftentimes, we stop a lot of the work that we do around the state borders and don’t think about individuals across the river that do the majority of their work within Louisville and the impact they make,” Craddock said. “So, I think the Charlestown grant provides the chance for us to extend our outreach even further than we may realize.”

For others like Erica Lewis, the $1,000 Gheens mini grant was the first funding her team received, allowing her to put on a community event at the Portland Museum in northwest Louisville called CeLOUbrate Print.

In several of my community workshops, I have heard adults lament that they have not made art or taken time to do a creative activity in years. Adults should be allowed to play and create and express without any expectation of productivity or profitability.
– Erica Lewis

Lewis, a doctoral student in comparative humanities, collaborated on the event with Rachel Singel, associate professor of fine arts. The event offered community residents the chance to create free, large, hand-carved wooden stamps – also known as woodcuts – by driving them over with a steamroller.

CeLOUbrate Print aimed to take the traditional medium of printmaking outside of its usual institutions of a university or for-profit print shop to teach its history.

“As someone who loves the craft, I wanted my project to address the gatekept inaccessibility of the medium,” Lewis said. “Oftentimes, people do not have access to the knowledge, equipment or resources to create their own prints, so I wanted to create a space for local artists to come together with an invitation to community members.”

Lewis said the project, along with her other free workshops, connected over 100 members of the community to local organizations and each other.

“The project as a whole came to embody participatory community-engaged art, in which sharing knowledge and making together became an act of collective art in its own right,” she said.

“In several of my community workshops, I have heard adults lament that they have not made art or taken time to do a creative activity in years,” Lewis said. “Adults should be allowed to play and create and express without any expectation of productivity or profitability.”

To read and learn more, take a look inside the .

Karimi finds inspiration for her pieces in psychology, architecture, relationships and Louisville. But mostly she uncovers inspiration in recollections. Her brand captures the longing humans have to embrace and express their own memories.

When Karimi is asked to recount how she got to where she is today, vivid memories of failing a class project, a night out where she decided to quit her job and of the support of her friends and family from Louisville and UofL meld together to craft her own story much like she melds metal to design her jewelry.

“Shahla is the bravest person that I know,” said Casey Harden ’07, who has been close friends with Karimi since high school. Now the senior director of engagement at the Frazier History Museum, Harden graduated from UofL with a bachelor of arts in humanities. “(Shahla) always had a gift for art and design. She isn’t afraid of the next step or trying something new. Life is a balancing act and Shahla is a professional plate spinner.”

The mind behind the designs

Born in Louisville, Karimi spent her middle and high school years in Oldham County before finding her way to UofL in 2000. She entered as a pre-medical student with an interest in psychology.

When recalling her time at UofL, Karimi mentioned the friendly atmosphere on campus. She also remembers, however, that being a student in the University Honors Program was often challenging. After graduating from high school as a straight-A student, Karimi experienced her first failing grade in a psychology class at UofL. Despite finishing the class with an A, she remembers this moment as a wakeup call that taught her to take things seriously. It helped her gain a strong work ethic, a skill that has been vital to her success.

She earned a bachelor of arts degree in 2004 and continued to New York University where she majored in graphic design. From there, she entered the corporate space and spent a decade immersed in digital and physical product work before finding her place at a creative agency, Code and Theory. She credits her mentor, the company’s current CEO Michael Treff, for guiding her away from the corporate realm and onto the entrepreneurial path.

She remembers a Kentucky bourbon-fueled evening where Treff encouraged her to pursue her dream. Karimi quit her corporate position the next day.

“From the first time we met, I was struck by (Shahla’s) incredible passion, drive and unwavering determination,” Treff said. “She’s a force. She built this business all on her own, (and) it’s really remarkable. I’ve watched Shahla become a mentor herself, generously giving her time to nurture the next generation. Shahla is living, breathing proof that with enough passion, perseverance, intelligence and creativity, you can create anything.”

Making it personal

Shahla Karimi Jewelry launched in 2014. Karimi put everything she had into her business as it expanded, turning a profit for the first time in 2018.

“There is no such thing as an overnight success,” she said. “An overnight success is five to seven years.”

Though she enjoys every project, her favorite pieces to craft are those which celebrate a milestone. Drawing on her lifelong love and appreciation for psychology, Karimi translates customers’ stories and memories into uniquely personal pieces.

In addition, Karimi strives to keep her collections inclusive and genderfluid. Her specialty collection focused on men’s jewelry is called JOON, drawing inspiration from a Farsi term of endearment meaning life or soul. This collection was born from Karimi’s appreciation of marriage as a decision a couple makes together as an equal unit.

Karimi’s jewelry has been displayed by a handful of celebrities including Reese Witherspoon, Gigi Hadid and Carrie Underwood. At Super Bowl LVIII, Taylor Swift showed off two of Karimi’s 14k gold ruby rings from her Chromatic Collection.

“Taylor Swift was the epitome,” Karimi said with a smile.

Though designing jewelry for big names is an exciting part of Karimi’s career journey, she also enjoys creating bespoke pieces for many of her friends from UofL in celebration of life achievements like engagements and promotions. She keeps in touch with many of her peers from her time on campus, citing some as daily sources of inspiration and others as resources for professional development.

Karimi noted that remembering and nurturing these connections has helped her business thrive.

“Through the power of word-of-mouth recommendations, a significant proportion of our online sales now originate from Louisville and its surrounding areas,” she said.

The beauty of architecture

Drawing from her experiences at UofL, Karimi shared what a piece representative of the university itself might look like.

“When envisioning a jewelry piece inspired by UofL, I am drawn to the distinctive brutalist architecture on campus,” she said. “The angular forms and intriguing geometries of structures like the Bingham Humanities Building and the Interfaith Center serve as a wellspring of creative inspiration.”

Karimi credited architect Zaha Hadid as the muse behind three of her collections to date, including an exclusive capsule sold online at Zales. Hadid’s “Bench,” a futuristic cast aluminum bench, will be displayed as a part of the Speed Art Museum’s initiative Speed Outdoors slated to open in 2025 and will provide Louisvillians with an opportunity to connect art and nature.

In fact, many of her brand’s collections reference the architects responsible for prominent buildings in Louisville, such as Frank Lloyd Wright who designed Wright Tower on Dutchmans Lane and Mies van der Rohe who composed the American Life Building downtown. Karimi recalls that downtown Louisville’s Main Street boasts one of the largest concentrations of cast-iron buildings, second only to the SoHo District in New York City where she currently resides.

When envisioning a jewelry piece inspired by UofL, I am drawn to the distinctive brutalist architecture on campus. The angular forms and intriguing geometries of structures like the Bingham Humanities Building and Interfaith Building serve as a wellspring of creative inspriation.
– Shahla Karimi

Though her favorite piece changes as her work continues, she currently loves the Azadi Puff-Set Convertible Body Chain, a versatile piece that can be styled in a variety of ways. This item is part of the Azadi Collection – the Persian word “azadi” translating to freedom – and takes its inspiration from the Azadi Tower in Iran.

Karimi’s jewelry and brand is representative of a lifetime of important moments etched into memories and how passion and perseverance can come full circle – reminiscent of the rings Swift wore at the Super Bowl that brought her pieces to the forefront.

She wants future UofL graduates and entrepreneurs to know they can achieve their dreams, too. They just need to remember one thing.

“Fail fast,” she said. “The faster you fail, the faster you grow.”

To read and learn more, take a look inside the .