: The UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center offers immunotherapies that are proving to be more durable and long-lasting treatments for various cancers.

: The longtime partnership between UofL and Special Olympics of Kentucky empowers athletes and the students and employees who work alongside them.

: Basketball guards Dana Evans and Carlik Jones took a timeout for a quick Q&A after the end of the regular season in their last year as Cardinals.

Cover illustration by Aditi Yeva

“I always think yoga lets us put down our guard and be a little freer and make connections,” said Alagaraja, an associate professor in the College of ����ֱ�� and
Human Development. “It really connects us to those around us.”

And, as it turns out, those connections run particularly deep in Louisville. In a recently published paper, Alagaraja highlights forgotten historic links she’s discovered between Louisville and yoga’s spread in America — a story that connects India and Kentucky, creating an exchange of philosophy, culture and surging feminism that left both forever changed.

“In a sense, the one part of me — the immigrant part of me — I like seeing these connections,” said Alagaraja, who herself is a transplant from India. “The sense of
global community, that’s very real.”

‘The Mystery’

This story begins as all good stories do — with a mystery.

While visiting a monastery in Los Angeles several years ago, Alagaraja was approached by a monk who heard she was from Louisville. There was a poem, he said, that had long been attributed to another monk, India’s Swami Vivekananda – a driving force in introducing the spirituality behind yoga to America – in his collected works. But it turns out, the poem was actually written by a woman from Louisville.

That poem is, appropriately, titled “The Mystery” — or “The Cup,” in the swami’s works — published around the turn of the 20th century by Margaret Steele Anderson. Anderson was a poet, journalist and art history lecturer at UofL.

“Here’s this woman from Louisville, and her work is somehow in the swami’s Complete Works,” Alagaraja said. “And from there, it became my mission to figure out how this misattribution happened.”

She began pulling threads, calling the book’s publisher, tracing Anderson’s family with assistance from the Cave Hill Heritage Foundation and tracking down the lawyer who executed Anderson’s will — but nothing. So, Alagaraja widened the net and began poring over letters, public records and other documents to find other Louisvillians who might have run the same social circles as Anderson.

She found Ellen Churchill Semple, Enid Yandell and Bertha Palmer.

Amid growing support for women’s suffrage and American feminism in the 19th and early 20th centuries, each of these three, like Anderson, had become pioneers in their respective careers ranging from art to science and business.

“I can’t imagine how they would break down those barriers,” Alagaraja said. “How they would fight to be heard and to pursue their passions, in a time when that wasn’t always available to them as women.”

Semple, born in Louisville in 1863, was an anthropologist and geographer, founding an entirely new discipline where the two intersect: anthropogeography. She earned not only her bachelor’s degree, but her master’s, and continued her studies unofficially at a German university, where women were not allowed to matriculate.

Yandell, born in Louisville in 1869, was a sculptor who studied in France under Auguste Rodin — the artist behind UofL’s iconic Thinker statue. Yandell now has her work featured in the Speed Art Museum and beyond.

Lastly, Palmer, born in Louisville in 1849, was a socialite, avid philanthropist and businesswoman. Palmer was selected as president of the Board of Lady Managers, a position of leadership for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, particularly the Woman’s Building exhibition.

But, Alagaraja wondered, what exactly did these Louisville women – all Anderson’s contemporaries – have to do with an Indian monk?

It was at the World’s Fair that Palmer became linked with a young Hindu, who exposed her to yoga philosophy.

From India, to the World (Fair)

That Indian monk, Swami Vivekananda had been solicited by a king, Maharaja of Khetri,
to travel to the United States for the 1893 World’s Fair. The maharaja saw the World Parliament of Religions as an opportunity to spread his ideas in the West, Alagaraja
said, and he sponsored Vivekananda’s trip.

After a long ocean liner voyage, Vivekananda attended the fair and spoke on Hinduism, spirituality and yoga philosophy — ideas like the importance of connection to the universe and mindfulness still very present in America today.

“And now, it’s a multibillion dollar industry, and many, many people practice it here,” Alagaraja, a practitioner herself, said. “He laid the groundwork with the philosophy and sparked interest, and that really exploded decades later with the practice of yoga.”

Vivekananda also spoke at the Woman’s Building, which Palmer played a key role in planning. The two developed a friendship, exchanging letters back and forth even after the swami returned home. It was likely through Palmer and shared friends, Alagaraja said, that Vivekananda also crossed paths with Semple and Yandell. The influence of his philosophies can be seen in both women’s later writings and works.

There is evidence that Semple frequently interacted with the swami’s followers and was taken with their ideas of spirituality. An accomplished and studied scientist, she wrote in a letter to one follower that those ideas “inspire me too, in spite of my strict scientific training, for I realise that the domain of the spirit is larger.”

There also is evidence of the swami’s impact on Yandell, the artist, who would later create a small sculpture described as “an Indian man standing.” In an interview with The New York
Times, Yandell would call the sculpture the “Hindoo” bronze.

“That’s how he sparked that interest (in yoga and spiritualism),” Alagaraja said. “It started as an interest in him, and how he was different from anyone else and it grew from there.”

Of course, the presence of Anderson’s “The Mystery” poem in Vivekananda’s collected works offers some evidence that they crossed paths as well. While that’s a mystery Alagaraja is still working to solve, she says her work so far has still cast light on a little-known piece of Louisville’s past.

“In search of Margaret,” she said, “I have found Enid, I have found Ellen, I have found all of these characters. And their stories are so interesting.”

Those stories explain Louisville’s connection to the spread of yoga philosophy in America. But, the women had an impact on the Swami, as well, inspiring ideas of feminism he would bring back to India.

Flowing both ways

Aside from connection, yoga is all about flows — and in this case, it’s influence that flows both ways. While the women learned of yogic thought and Hinduism from the swami, he was inspired by their ideas of feminism and efforts to gain equality.

In the 1890s, when the swami traveled to America, the social hierarchy in India was rigid and gender-driven, with women and men not being able to speak to those of the other sex outside of their own family. When he arrived in America, Vivekananda would have been surprised to see women and men shoulder to shoulder at the World’s Fair and to see women thriving in careers and leadership positions as Palmer, Yandell and Semple did.

This inspired the swami, Alagaraja said, as he understood freedom and equality as being firmly connected to his sense of spirituality. When he returned to India, he continued to speak to the ideas of feminism through his teachings and writings.

“When he goes back to India, he becomes such a champion for women’s rights, and that’s evident in his writings,” Alagaraja said. “Feminism, empowerment, yoga — they all have this connection.”

In letters written to friends in India about his visit to the U.S., Vivekananda said he admired the “broad and liberal minds” of the women he met who expanded his own outlook – and, in turn, the outlooks of his followers and those who still read his works today.

“About the women in America, I cannot express my gratitude for their kindness,” he wrote. “In this country (America), women are the life of every movement and represent all the culture of the nation.”

In July 1896, shortly after his trip to America, Vivekananda founded the journal Prabuddha Bharata, or Awakened India — the very same journal in which Alagaraja’s recent findings were published. In his time, the swami used the journal as a bullhorn to spread his teachings, including those on gender, racial and class equity.

In the generations after the swami, during unrest in India as its people fought for political independence, Alagaraja said, protesters would cite the Vivekananda’s works and ideas of unity and freedom – ideas that overlap with the ideas of the women from Louisville.

“Our right of interference is limited entirely to giving education,” Vivekenanda wrote. “Women must be put in a position to solve their own problems in their own way. No one can or ought to do this for them. And our Indian women are capable of doing it as any in the world.”

Vivekananda would likely be as impressed with another Louisville woman and her work to continue advancing the ideas he and his contemporaries shared: Alagaraja herself, whose efforts to solve this mystery go far beyond her typical university research.

“Innovation these days within universities is critical for stretching our thoughts, words and reach,” said Sharon Kerrick, Alagaraja’s chair and colleague in the UofL department of education leadership, evaluation and organizational development. “Dr. Alagaraja’s discovery of this forgotten part of history is the very definition of innovative and shows how she utilized her traditional inquiry skills, mixed with curiosity and a bold thought process, to trace this fascinating story.”

More importantly, Alagaraja said, highlighting the connections between Kentucky and India, and between the swami and the Louisville women, and between these two seemingly disparate ideas and movements, reveals a universal truth — we are all connected.

“At their most basic level, both (feminism and yoga) are built on the recognition of equality — and the recognition of freedom for not just the physical self but for the spirit,” Alagaraja said. “We aren’t men and women — we are spirit and spirit. We are the same.”

Help solve “The Mystery”: If you have any information on Margaret Steele Anderson or her poem, email meera.alagaraja@louisville.edu.

Illustrations by Aditi Yeva

First diagnosed with a rare mucosal melanoma in her sinuses 11 years ago, Nashville resident Valerie Snapp was cancer-free for five years after surgery and radiation. But the cancer came back. An immunotherapy drug worked for a time before it, too, failed. A vaccine therapy would take too long for her, doctors said, and she was turned down for a clinical trial at another center. Her cancer was considered incurable and she was told she had only months to live.

Although her treatment options dwindled, her hope did not. She reached out to Jason Chesney, director of UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center. Chesney asked her to come to Louisville to be evaluated for a clinical trial of an immunotherapy known as tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) that would engage her own immune system to fight
the cancer.

“He told me all the pros and cons and I said, ‘I’ll tell you right now I want in,’” Snapp said.

Now, more than a year after her treatment, scans show she is cancer-free.

The Brown Cancer Center is one of a very limited number of cancer centers in the United States offering experimental adoptive cell therapies, immunotherapy that uses cells from the patient, such as the TILs Snapp received, to fight their cancer.

Cancer deaths in the United States have declined by 31 percent since 1991, according to the National Cancer Institute, thanks to improvements in prevention, detection and treatment. Immunotherapies are some of the most promising new treatments.

“The death rate from cancer has dropped dramatically in the U.S. in recent years in no small part due to the success of immunotherapy in lung cancer and melanoma,” said Michael Egger, assistant professor and surgical oncologist.

The doctors at UofL have learned that immunotherapies not only can be effective when other types of treatments fail, but when they are successful, they result in more durable responses against the cancer.

“While we have made significant progress against cancer, it remains a major cause of death in the United States. Our goal is to reduce the cancer death rate by another 25 percent in the next five years,” Chesney said. “We believe that we can meet this goal through our comprehensive, multidisciplinary clinics focused on a single type of cancer, as well as the development of novel immunotherapies such as TILs and CAR T-cell therapy, which are part of our clinical trials program at the Brown Cancer Center.”

The body’s immune system has the ability to destroy cancer when the immune cells recognize it. However, cancer cells can mask themselves, appearing as normal healthy cells to the immune system. Immunotherapies help the immune system recognize these cloaked cancer cells and eradicate them. Unlike chemotherapy, which works by targeting the cancer cells directly, immunotherapy engages the patient’s immune system to do this work.

For TILs treatment, a segment of the patient’s tumor first must be removed and immune cells called T cells are isolated from the tumor. The T cells are activated, expanded and then infused back into the patient where they seek out and destroy the tumor cells.

Before the activated T cells can be reinfused, however, the patient must undergo chemotherapy to prepare the body for the new cancer-specific immune cells. Following
the infusion of the immune cells, the patient receives a powerful immune boosting treatment, Interleuken 2. In some respects, treatment with TILs is similar to a bone
marrow transplant. Both procedures are performed at the Blood Cancers, Cellular Therapy and Transplant Program unit at UofL Health – UofL Hospital.

Snapp came to UofL Hospital in November 2019 for the treatment, accompanied by her husband and their dog, who stayed nearby in their motor home for the treatment time.

“That was a very rough three weeks,” Snapp admitted. “But I got over it and I am now cancer-free. It has been several months since my first clean scan.”

Snapp says she is feeling well and now is living a normal life. As she walks her dog every morning, she stops at a corner near her home that borders a large farm and counts
her blessings.

“I look out over the farm and it is so beautiful. I think how blessed I am to be able to be here to see this. How many people have been told they wouldn’t be here for long and
have not had the chance I have had? I’ve had wonderful doctors, wonderful care and they wouldn’t quit. If Dr. Chesney had not fought for me to be in the clinical trial, I wouldn’t be here today,” Snapp said.

Currently available only in clinical trials, TILs have been used for melanoma for more than a decade, and more recently in trials for head and neck, cervical and lung cancers. TILs are expected to receive Food and Drug Administration approval for treatment of melanoma and cervical cancers within the next year.

Driving CAR T cells onward

Another exciting immunotherapy soon to be available at Brown Cancer Center is chimeric antigen receptor positive T, or CAR T-cell therapy. In October 2019, Louisville resident
Thomas E. Dunbar pledged $1 million to establish the Dunbar CAR T-cell Program at UofL to make this therapy available for patients at Brown Cancer Center and elsewhere.

For CAR T-cell therapies, immune T cells are extracted from the patient’s blood and are genetically modified to more effectively fight the patient’s cancer. The modified cells are infused back into the patient where it is hoped they will fight the cancer and create long-term immunity to its recurrence. The manufacture of CAR T cells requires specialized clean rooms known as Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) laboratories to ensure a sterile and controlled environment for the cells. Two of these laboratories are in place at UofL.

“We are already producing CAR T cells in the lab for a clinical trial with Stony Brook University Hospital targeting certain leukemias and lymphomas. The first two patients
have been dosed with the engineered T cells and are doing very well,” said Robert Emmons, director of the Dunbar CAR T-cell lab. “We anticipate further protocols for CAR T therapy in acute lymphocytic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, myeloma, pediatric neuroblastoma
and certain solid tumors to be in place at UofL later this year,” Emmons said.

CAR T-cell therapy is FDA approved for treating patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and a form of a B-cell (non-Hodgkin) lymphoma, but the cells can be customized to attack any protein on the surface of a cancer cell, giving it the potential to be effective in many types of cancer.

“So far, CAR T cells have been most successful in blood cancers – leukemias and lymphomas,” said Rebecca Redman, deputy director of clinical research at Brown Cancer Center. “But now that we have the lab manufacturing the cells here, the hope is that we can start to look at CAR T cells that may work in solid tumors and try to expand on how those are being used.”

Researchers who refuse to yield

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the Brown Cancer Center has long been a factor in furthering cancer research and contributing to the search for a thus-far elusive cure. UofL’s immunotherapy trials, however, are proving to lead to stronger, more sustainable treatments.

The facilities and expertise of scientists who conduct basic and translational research at UofL are essential to support clinical trials for the latest advances. The Division of Immunotherapy in the Department of Surgery is a research-oriented division focused on learning more about these types of treatment.

“Our faculty members are working on understanding the fundamental tumor immune evasion mechanisms and developing novel therapeutic approaches for cancer treatment,” said Jun Yan, director of the division.

Physicians at Brown Cancer Center often consult with researchers for additional insight.

“We frequently work with basic science researchers to develop new treatments or look at patterns of resistance to figure out how we can design clinical trials or share observations about what we are seeing in the clinic,” Redman said.

Egger is working on a clinical trial to test new methods for using immunotherapy to treat melanoma, hoping ultimately to eliminate the need for surgery when melanoma has
spread to the lymph nodes. For this trial, he shares tissue samples from patients with scientists in the UofL Center for Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy (CCII) for testing.

“We need to evaluate these cells to see how well the T cells are responding to the immunotherapy before, during and after surgery to understand why it may work and
who would benefit from this type of therapy,” Egger said.

The CCII, led by Chesney and Yan, was created in 2020 to develop and improve cancer immunotherapies and support clinical trials at the Brown Cancer Center. The CCII was awarded $11.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to help young and established researchers in the cancer immunotherapy field with funding, mentorship and equipment as a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence. This on-site research support can lead to better outcomes for patients with rare and incurable cancers.

“For some patients, their treatment may be very straightforward. But for others, the standard treatment may not be satisfactory,” Egger said. “Having access to the clinical trials and the researchers that drive that kind of innovation can make a difference in the success of their treatment.”

While so far, many immunotherapy clinical trials have been open only to individuals with cancer that is considered incurable, these treatments soon should be available for patients with less advanced disease.

“Not only is it prolonging the lives of people with incurable cancers, but given its success in those patients, these therapies are moving into curable-stage patients in hopes of preventing their tumors from ever coming back in the first place,” Redman said.

“What’s next? The sky is the limit,” Egger said. “We are all trying immunotherapy in every type of cancer to understand its promise and its limitations. It may never replace chemotherapy, but when you have a response to immunotherapy, it is usually very durable, leading to longer times before cancer recurrence, or even a cure.”

Dana Evans, senior guard

We all know COVID has wreaked havoc on this season, but how has the team overcome and what makes this season special?

I think what makes this season so special is how you have to be able to adjust and move on. This is a quick turnaround for games. You never know who you’re going to play next, so you’ve just got to look forward to the positive things, as in we’re still able to play
this game. Take it game by game because you just never know when the last time is you’ll be putting on a Louisville jersey.

Speaking of the last time you put on a Louisville jersey, you’re a senior. You’ve had your last home game. When you’re thinking back on your time at UofL, what has playing at Louisville done for you?

Louisville has done a lot for me. It’s helped me grow into a woman and helped me grow up pretty fast. Coming from high school, I didn’t know a lot of things I know now. I wasn’t as mature. Coach (Jeff) Walz has helped me develop into a better basketball player. I’ve had a lot of people (from the women’s program) chiming in on my career and helping me to be the best player and the best person I could possibly be. I pretty much have favorite memories from every year – my freshman year would definitely be getting to the Final Four and the ACC Tournament Championship. My sophomore year, I would say beating UConn in front of 17,000 fans. My junior year was bonding with the girls. I still talk to some of the seniors (from the 2019-20 team). So far my senior year has been being ranked No. 1.

You’re getting quite a bit of recognition – you’re in the running for almost every major award out there. You’ve been playing basketball since the fourth grade; what does it mean for you to get this recognition now?

It definitely feels good because my whole life I’ve been underestimated. I’ve been told I’m too short, I’m too small, I wouldn’t be able to play at this level, I wouldn’t be successful. It was a lot of things I “wouldn’t” do. So just proving people wrong and doing things that hadn’t really been done means a lot to me. It means a lot for me and my community that I came from because I feel like a lot of people look at where they’re from and how they came up and kind of doubt their skills. But I’m here and I feel like I can show a lot of young people, a lot of young girls that…you can do something. Proving people wrong feels good, especially when you know your capabilities and you’re confident in yourself. But you have to continue to just put in the work. 

So, we’ve talked about the recognition you’re getting, but there’s one accolade we haven’t mentioned yet: You’ve got the best lashes of any player out there. How did that become your signature look?

Honestly, I would have never thought that I would be known for eyelashes. I started getting into the eyelashes in high school – just something new. So then I brought it here and it was just a huge thing everybody loved. Everybody started to get them and it
kinda blew up from there. I didn’t expect it but it’s pretty cool now. You can still be yourself to the core – you can still show that you like to be girly girl and you can still look nice even though you’re playing a sport. So it’s just showing people that you can still be yourself no matter what.

A local sports blog recently published a column proclaiming you should be on the Mount Rushmore of Louisville women’s basketball. What did you think about that?

That honestly was huge. I came here to be the best person and best player I could possibly be and for people to start saying I could possibly be one of the best players to leave Louisville – that’s huge.

Who would be on your personal women’s Cardinals Mount Rushmore?

If I can include myself, I’ll go myself, Asia Durr, Angel McCoughtry and Schoni (Schimmel). The next would be Myisha (Hines-Allen) and probably I’ll go Sam Fuehring.

What comes next for you? What are your future goals?

I have a lot of goals. Getting drafted and making a WNBA team. Obviously I would love to win Rookie of the Year (in the WNBA) but just making an impact would be big for me. Getting a tryout with the U.S. Olympic team. Playing overseas. And winning the WNBA Championship. One day maybe playing on the All-Star team. And one day, obviously, being the MVP of the league – that’s years to come. But that’s a lot of different goals I have.

(Editor’s note: Evans was named ACC Player of the Year shortly after this interview and was drafted by the WNBA’s Dallas Wings in April.)

Carlik Jones, graduate transfer guard

We all know COVID has wreaked havoc on this season, but how has the team overcome and what makes this season special?

You know, through everything, I think it’s been pretty good. Of course, for me and some of the freshmen, we didn’t get to experience Louisville how it really is with the fans or hanging out with regular students; it’s more so been hanging out with teammates. But I think we’ve been handling it pretty well. It really made the team a lot closer, just spending what feels like 24/7 together, so even with COVID and all the madness that seems like has been going on, it’s been pretty good.

As a transfer, you got to be a Cardinal for one year. Tell a little about what your time at Louisville has meant to you.

It’s really meant a lot. Especially going through the transfer portal, I had certain things that I wanted and certain concerns I had that any person would have going to a different school for a year. Like you’re worried about like the coaches want you here, but does the team want you here? But guys started reaching out to me when I first committed to Louisville and it was like as soon as I got here, we hit the ground rolling. You know, I probably wasn’t even in my dorm for 24 hours before the guys were talking about hanging out and getting food. So I just really appreciated how those guys accepted me with open arms. I look at this team, the coaches, the staff, like a family. I’m definitely glad I chose Louisville.

You said earlier the guys made you part of the team. They elected you co-captain in your first year, so it’s clear they respect you and know you pretty well. So, since it’s your last year, let’s talk about senior superlatives – class clown, best dressed, all that. What do you think your teammates would vote you?

Hmmm. I’m a really goofy guy. Definitely easy to talk to. I’ve definitely had teammates come up to me and ask me about things I’ve already been through because I’ve done four years of college and I’m a little older. So, it’s kinda like they would vote me the Big
Brother. I would say funniest, but we’ve got a ton of goofy guys on the team so I doubt they would say funniest for me. I’d say there isn’t one guy on the team who’s not goofy.

Speaking of superlatives, you’re up for quite a few other awards this year – your first year in a Power 5 conference. How does it feel to get this kind of recognition?

It’s a great feeling. Transferring in some thoughts that come to your mind like, it could be a good year or it could be a bad year. To receive some of the accolades I’ve been receiving, it’s definitely a blessing. But I credit my coaches, I credit my teammates. We compete every day in practice. We make each other better. They don’t let me get comfortable; they don’t allow me to get a big head. But it is a great feeling to get all these accolades especially when I thought that I did deserve them when I was at Radford and I thought maybe the school wasn’t big enough for me to receive them.

It seems like you kind of play with a little bit of a chip on your shoulder.

Yes. I just think it helped me coming in. When I first transferred, I got some backlash from it, people thinking that I made a mistake. Seeing that stuff on social media, hearing things people were saying, it did nothing but make me work harder. It made me want to prove that I could do it on multiple levels, and I can do it in what’s arguably the best conference in college basketball. It motivates me. Playing with a chip on my shoulder usually has positive outcomes.

Samuell Williamson called you Mariano Rivera in an interview, and you admitted you had to look Rivera up since, coming from Cincinnati, you were more of a Reds fan. So, who are your favorite Reds players?

Oh, if we’re going all time that’s a tough one because I like a lot of people. When Ken Griffey Jr. was there he probably would have been my favorite. I just thought he was the man. And Pete Rose. They would probably by my two favorites.

What’s next for you? What are your future goals?

I plan to further my career and see if I can go play at the next level, whether that is the NBA or overseas. Honestly, if that doesn’t work out, you know I will definitely look forward to coming back and being a Cardinal for another year. I’m just taking it day by day; I don’t really have any final decisions on what I will do after this year.

(Editor’s Note: Jones declared for the NBA Draft and signed with an agent in April.)

The UofL students who volunteer as their teammate buddies in sports events, as well as the students and others who help with their required health checkups, learn valuable skills and appreciation that will carry over into their later lives. And the faculty and staff who guide them, along with Special Olympics Kentucky, continue to build an enduring alliance that benefits them all – those with and those without intellectual disabilities.

“The impact it has on our students at UofL competing with the Special Olympics athletes on the same teams – that’s the really cool part,” said Dale Ramsay ’82, intramural and recreational sports director. “This has opened their eyes, and I think they find out how much more they have in common than they do differences.”

From basketball to bocce

The relationship between Special Olympics Kentucky and UofL began more than three decades ago and is still going strong. What started as a statewide track and field event on Belknap Campus has evolved over time into competitions ranging from basketball to the newest, bocce.

Then-new UofL employee John Smith was approached in the late 1980s by Special Olympics representative Max Appel about hosting track and field for the athletes. Smith, now assistant director of intramural and recreational sports as well as Staff Senate chair, has seen and helped the program expand and change even as the campus has.

When the Student Activities Center and its on-campus courts opened as the 1990s began, UofL became the site for the state Special Olympics basketball tournament. A state softball tournament followed. Special Olympics golfers also have participated in the faculty-staff golf scramble.

The involvement has mushroomed as Special Olympics developed its unified sports program that combines an equal number of athletes with intellectual disabilities with university students on sports teams for training and competition. The effort tries to pair athletes of comparable age.

When the Student Recreation Center opened on Belknap’s western edge, the basketball tournaments relocated there. And the bocce ball exhibition tournament – the first unified bocce team organized in Kentucky at the college level – occurred last fall in a socially distanced way on a turf field with four university students and four Special Olympians divided into unified pairs. Organizers called bocce an especially good addition because it was a more accessible sport.

“This was my first time playing any bocce,” said Dallas Derringer, a Special Olympics athlete. “I safely met new people while playing during a pandemic.”

“I have been fortunate to be a regular volunteer with Special Olympics Kentucky for around four years now, so it has been very rewarding to see the unified sports program expand to UofL,” said Corey Chitwood, a bioengineering graduate student. “It is important for me to interact with individuals with different backgrounds than my own. It is also important to make sure everyone in our community feels included to participate, so it was awesome the UofL could partner with SOKY for a unified event that was accessible to those at all ability levels.”

UofL was the first university that Special Olympics Kentucky paired up with to offer unified sports through an intramurals program, and it has become a springboard to establishing similar relationships with other universities in the state, according to Karen Michalak-Parsley ’14, the organization’s director of unified champion schools.

Special Olympics has a partnership with the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Administration to grow unified sports at the college level, she said. UofL has sent a unified basketball team to compete at its national meeting twice – even placing as the top U.S. team, second only to one from Canada, at its first invitation.

Student and staff involvement doesn’t end when the Special Olympics contests are over.
Volunteers hop into spirited fundraisers to support the more than 11,000 athletes statewide – braving a winter dip for the group’s Polar Plunge or competing in teams in the Plane Pull by tugging Boeing 757 airliners at UPS Worldport hub.

“I just can’t say enough about them going the extra mile to support Special Olympics Kentucky in every way, but also the unified sports. They participate in many ways and support us,” Michalak-Parsley said.

“Karen and I want to make this program bigger and bigger each year,” said Kat Halbleib ’17, ’19, who as assistant director of intramural sports coordinates the Special Olympics involvement now for UofL. “It’s a great thing for students and athletes on all fronts.”

Treating athletes as people first

In years unaffected by COVID-19, there is also a huge turnout of Special Olympians at Cardinal Stadium for MedFest, where medical teams provide hundreds of physicals and related health screenings, such as vision, dental and hearing, free of charge for those who’ll compete in various events.

“It’s been absolutely phenomenal,” Michalak-Parsley said. There, UofL medical students join in providing care with community partners and professionals such as lead MedFest clinical director Matthew Adamkin ’12 and Priya Chandan, assistant professors in the neurosurgery department’s physical medicine and rehabilitation division and avid Special Olympics volunteers.

Under Chandan’s leadership, medical students at UofL and other universities also learn more about caring for people with intellectual and development disabilities through the National Curriculum Initiative in Developmental Medicine. The five-year partnership between the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry and Special Olympics International, with resources from a cooperative agreement funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, trains students about developmental medicine to better serve patients with such disabilities throughout their lifespan.

That work has spread from its intended 12 to now 20 schools that are enhancing their curriculums to include training that isn’t traditionally offered to medical students, said Chandan, the project director. At UofL, that means second-year students attend lectures and participate in small-group discussions with Special Olympics athletes to help the future physicians better understand their needs and how they would like to be treated. Fourth-year students can opt for an elective rotation at Lee Specialty Clinic, which serves adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The opportunities help the medical students get to know their patients as people.

“They want their physicians to talk directly to them,” rather than only to their caregivers, Chandan said. “If you are able to learn how to modify your communication style (toward patients), that’s a skill you need for patient care, period,” she said.

As more people with intellectual disabilities grow into adulthood and past their pediatric care, it’s more important for health providers to feel more comfortable and confident in treating them so their patients will seek and receive their needed medical attention. Chandan praised the School of Medicine’s support for the initiative and credits student interest for the growing involvement.

“They wouldn’t be advocating for more if they didn’t think it was important.”

Chandan also is global clinical director for Special Olympics MedFest, advising Special Olympics International on protocols for the sports physicals and providing technical assistance to clinical directors. She and School of Medicine colleague Corrie Harris, associate professor in pediatric hospital medicine and associate medical director for the Home of the Innocents pediatric convalescent center, serve on the Special Olympics Kentucky board of directors.

In the beginning Chandan was motivated to get involved with Special Olympics because of her older brother, who has Down syndrome and who has participated in some events. Years later she is impressed by the university’s partnership on many levels with the organization.

“It’s a very tightknit relationship that has really grown, and it’s been awesome to see,” Chandan said.

Ramsay concurs. “We love Special Olympics, and it’s a great, unbelievable program,” he said.

Graduate assistant Idaya Gager contributed to this story.

After a prolific 46-year career with the university, the vice president for community engagement will begin his well-deserved retirement this summer not only as a trailblazer but also as a paragon of leadership and achievement.

The native Kentuckian entered UofL as an undergraduate in 1970. He fondly recollects being selected as the 1974 Mr. Cardinal, the first Black student in university history to
receive the honor. As UofL transitioned into a premier state-supported metropolitan university, alumni like Fitzpatrick helped establish the university as a champion of diversity and inclusion.

Fitzpatrick’s Cardinal roots run deep. He completed two undergraduate degrees with honors in 1974 and received his master’s degree from UofL in 1975 before earning his doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. Over his UofL tenure, Fitzpatrick has served as the liaison among the university community, the Greater Louisville community and the president’s office.

“In the office of community engagement, we think of ourselves as that initial door that the community can come to,” he said. “Whether it’s a nonprofit or an educational institution, we’re that first stop that connects the community with the resources of the university – our primary resource being our faculty and staff, who can provide their expertise and knowledge.”

As a first-generation college graduate, Fitzpatrick is most proud of the university’s continued commitment to students from low-income and first-generation families through programs like the Signature Partnership Initiative. The Signature Partnership Initiative was launched under Fitzpatrick’s leadership in 2007 and serves to enhance the quality of life and economic opportunity for west Louisville residents through various programs, scholarships and community projects.

Through Fitzpatrick and his team, the Signature Partnership Initiative has allowed the university to build its Louisville presence and strengthen its relationships with residents, Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville Metro Government and community organizations. Fitzpatrick further highlighted the importance of the recent health care system acquisition for west Louisville.

The expansion included the acquisition of UofL Health – Mary & Elizabeth Hospital, the only hospital in Louisville west of Interstate 65.

“We haven’t solved all the problems, but we have made a major dent working with JCPS by elevating the educational attainment of the students at those Signature Partnership schools,” Fitzpatrick said. “And now with the health care acquisition properties, we have boots on the ground.”

Peers and colleagues reflect fondly on Fitzpatrick’s impact. Laura Rothstein, a professor and former dean with the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, has worked with him over her 20-year UofL career.

“Ralph’s thoughtful and effective leadership in the community and at the university have made an enormous impact on this community,” she said. “He has attended many of the law school’s diversity forums, showing our community the interest and support of the central administration. I have observed his thoughtful listening and guidance at many, many community meetings in west Louisville.”

When reminiscing, Fitzpatrick shared how the university also made a personal impact on his life. He met his wife of now nearly 50 years while the two were completing their
undergraduate programs, and his son later followed in their footsteps by graduating from UofL.

Fitzpatrick has left his mark on the university by blazing the trails ahead for over 50 years not only as a staff member but also as an accomplished alumnus and visionary community leader. His continued commitment to UofL and the surrounding community has helped establish the university as a champion of diversity and inclusion for generations to come.