newsletter

The Lab SchooL: buiLding a beTTer chiLdLearn how the Lab School lives up to its motto: “Nurturing roots for life-long learning.”

Fa L L 2 0 1 2

Love Sick?Could falling madly in love undemine your health? Tim Loving looks at falling in love, thinking about love, and the stress hormone cortisol.

ceLebraTing a cenTury oF changeMary Gearing arrived on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin in 1912. We celebrate her vision as we commemorate our 100th year.

new FacuLTyOur programs continue to grow and flourish as we welcome our newest faculty members. Learn more about how these researchers are changing the world.

and More…

This issue:

c e n T e n n i a L1 9 1 2 – 2 0 1 2

Dear Friends, Well, hard to believe, but it has been 100 years since Mary Gearing and her colleagues set things in motion. We will celebrate the School of Human Ecology’s Centennial on November 8–10, 2012. I have seen the program and line-up of festivities; they will be well worth attending. Details will follow, either through the mail or posted on our Web site. I hope you can make it. To celebrate our Centennial, we will be launching the Mary Gearing Society to honor our visionary founder and to ensure that our outstanding programs continue to develop, grow and thrive into the next century and beyond. Details will follow. As we celebrate the past we also engage, imagine and prepare for the future. In Nutritional Sciences, Dr. Linda deGraffenried and Dr. Steve Hursting continue to advance their work on obesity, breast and prostate cancer, and various associated treatments. One of Dr. Hursting’s postdoctoral students, Sarah Dunlap, was featured at the recent San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium for her work on a particular type of aggressive breast cancer, pointing to potential new targets for treatment. In the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences Dr. Karen Fingerman is helping her students better understand aging. Working with a make-up artist from Theatre and Dance, she transformed her students into instant senior citizens, letting them glimpse their own future-faces. When she is not employing novel teaching methods in the classroom, Fingerman is researching how family ties enhance or detract from individual health and well being. A remarkable set of internship programs can be found throughout the School, preparing students and opening doors for careers that lie ahead. These are found in the Coordinated Program in Dietetics as well as in children programs being advanced in the Priscilla Pond Flawn Lab School. The recently launched UT in NYC program is designed to advance these efforts even further. This past year alone, the School of Human Ecology placed 242 students in internship positions in local, state, national and international venues. How quickly can we go from 0 to 60? When it comes to honors programs, the answer is one year. The honors programs in the School of Human Ecology began enrolling students last year and are growing by leaps and bounds as our students seek to be challenged and engaged. With an eye on outreach, Monica Meadows along with several of her colleagues in Nutritional Sciences have teamed up with Susie Jastrow to organize a summer nutritional institute. The initiative will be launched in Summer 2013. Stay tuned. With all this noted, let me close with a brief welcome to our new faculty: Paul Eastwick (HDFS), Jaimie Davis (NTR), and Stefano Tiziani (NTR), who are doing important research in interpersonal relationships (Eastwick), epidemiology and nutrition (Davis), and metabolomics – look it up (Tiziani). Together the School of Human Ecology offers a rich and unique set of programs that are science based and human focused, designed to leave the world a better place than what we found. See you in November.

Kind regards,

Sheldon Ekland-Olson, Director, School of Human Ecology

Imaginethe future

Make an impact

Do the work

Celebrate the past

Change the world

Message from the director

2

3

There are four places set at a tiny table in the classroom for 4-year-olds at the Priscilla Pond Flawn Child and Family Laboratory (affectionately known as the Lab School). Each place setting includes a shallow blue plastic bucket arranged on top of a folded bath towel. The buckets are filled with a soupy mixture of corn starch and water. Children cluster around the table. The prospect of scooping cool handfuls of white glop, of diving in up to the elbows, is irresistible. There are 16 children in the class; there are only four places at the table. The children will have to navigate a complex and nuanced social situation to find a place at the table. Who goes first? Second? How long is a turn? What happens if a turn is missed? If there is to be order and fairness, there are rules to be followed, boundaries to be respected. The unspoken expectations are inherent to the table’s arrangement, and this entire activity has been care-fully orchestrated by the Lab School’s master teachers, who serve as guides while the children sort out the complexities. “Children learn best by doing, by exploring and manipulating their worlds,” says Rhonda Hauser, director of the Lab School. “We focus on building an environment to prepare children to succeed academically but also to build a strong sense of self, to develop the ability to embrace new challenges, and to be active problem solvers. We want children to be prepared to succeed.”

Theory to Practice It’s not just the children who are learning by doing. The Lab School, which enrolls 105 children between ages 18 months and 6 years, affords undergraduates at The University of Texas at Austin an opportunity to observe how young children interact and to see the theories they learn in the classroom in action on the playground. Scattered around the Lab School’s classroom for 3-year-olds are undergraduate students from Ted Dix’s honors Child Development class, each recording observations. The undergraduates are conducting a research project to de-termine whether, at early stages in human development, the same children who engage in altruistic and pro-social behaviors can also be aggressive and dominant, often shifting between the two.

With 13 undergraduate stu-dents are building a data set that includes 130 hours of observation coded to evalu-ate statistically altruistic and aggressive behavior in 3- and 4-year-olds. “The Lab School gives our students an opportunity to start thinking like social scientists. They have the opportunity to

design and implement a small research study that will connect the theories about how personality and social behavior emerge in young children,” Dix says.

Putting the “Lab” in Lab SchoolThe Lab School supports the research of faculty members across disciplines. Faculty members from education, psychology, kinesiology

Imagine the future

The Lab School: building a better child

ObesIty PrIMes the PuMP fOr tuMOr PrOgressIOn

Sarah Dunlap, a postdoctoral fellow working in Stephen Hursting’s

laboratory, and her colleagues have discovered that obesity drives tumor

progression, from a lower to higher grade, by turning on genes typically

only activated during embryogenesis. These genes govern what is called

epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition as cells become more specialized.

When the body is in an obese state, the biochemical environment is

primed to foster cell growth and replication. Growth factors, hormones,

and inflammatory agents all impact the ways that cells function, and can

lead to an environment where tumor cells, should they arise, grow faster

without normal regulation.

Dunlap and her colleagues examined the growth of breast cancer cells

implanted in mice who were fed either a control diet, a diet that would

induce obesity, or a calorie restricted diet. The researchers found that a

calorie restricted diet suppressed tumor progression.

Dunlap says, “Excitingly, this leads us to two conclusions: a lifetime of

moderate caloric restriction can decrease the chances of developing this

aggressive cancer, and new targets have been identified for drug develop-

ment to improve prognosis for obese women with basal-like breast cancer.”

Dunlap’s article, “Dietary Energy Balance Modulates Epithelial-to-Mesenchy-

mal Transition and Tumor Progression in Murine Claudin-Low and Basal-like

Mammary Tumor Models,” was published in the May 2012 edition of Cancer

Prevention Research and this article was featured on the journal’s cover.

Dunlap was invited to present her research as a platform speaker at the

December 2011 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Marci Gleason

Rhonda Hauser

“The Lab School

gives our students

an opportunity

to start thinking

like social scientists.”

4

and human development often use the Lab School for pilot studies intended to eventually examine a broader population. The pilot ap-proach allows researchers to tweak methods and troubleshoot poten-tial problems before embarking on larger-scale work. One such study is Marci Gleason’s Daily Living Project. Gleason, assistant professor in Human Development and Family Science, is interested in how parents’ relationships with their children affect their relationship with each other. She is also exploring how major life transitions—couples expecting the birth of their first child, for example—affect overall couple functioning and relationship satisfaction. Using the Lab School’s waiting list to locate expectant mothers in their third trimester, Gleason and her team piloted a study that was expanded to include the Austin community. “We started with a focus group of Lab School parents. The Lab School opened their rooms to us; we were able to have two focus groups. We had undergraduate research assistants in the booths listening to our discussion,” Gleason says. The support provided by the Lab School enabled her to develop a daily diary questionnaire that became integral to her study. The mothers-to-be and their partners were loaned iPod Touch devices to respond to the questionnaire and to report on their daily activities and moods. This data was collected for three weeks in the third trimester and again at 9 weeks and 14 months postpartum. “We know that having a child, particularly a first child, is a signifi-cant transition in a family. It’s a positive transition, but it’s still a stressor. We are interested in taking a snapshot of couple interac-tions and couple functioning before and after a major life transition,” Gleason says. The study is now entering its final round of data collection, and the results will be published soon. “The Lab School gave me a place to start” Gleason says.

The Child and the Scientist Cristine Legare, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, is interested in identifying the moment in the process of discovery and learning that gives rise to the acquisition of scientific reasoning. At what moment does a child begin to develop hypotheses? To answer this question, Legare developed an experimental situ-ation involving a “discovery box,” a device containing a small light. When an object is placed on the discovery box, the light comes on. After a research assistant demonstrates how to make the discovery box work, preschool children quickly grasp what will make the mechanism light up. Children are then presented with an experimental situation: One of the discovery boxes will not light up when an object is placed in the expected position; this is a moment when the unexpected happens. Children quickly ignore expected results; it’s the unexpected result that draws children’s attention. Legare says, “When faced with an unexpected outcome, the children begin to generate hypotheses. If we give them access to the boxes, children develop tests for their hypotheses. They spon-taneously develop six or seven tests—such as flipping the box over, restacking objects and opening objects—in an attempt to find the causal mechanism.” The scientific reasoning process begins with surprise. “We are in-terested in finding how this process develops in young children. We can then work to harness the power of curiosity and spontaneous discovery.”

grOwIng OlD, Instantly, In the 21st Century

We are living longer. This is, undoubtedly, good news.

Karen Fingerman, professor of human develop-

ment and family sciences, asked students in her

Longevity in the 21st Century course to imagine

themselves in 50 to 60 years. She asked her stu-

dents to imagine what they will look like, how they

will act, and the activities they will engage in when

they reach later life. This is a difficult task for most

college students, so Fingerman recruited help to

make the task easier.

In order to illustrate how those extra years shape

and are shaped by life experience, Fingerman brought

the shaPe Of thIngs tO COMe: COntOur 2012

On April 19, 2012, textiles and

apparel students demonstrated

to a live audience of more than

5,000 (with an additional global

audience tuning in via Webcast)

the shape of things to come.

Our talented students pushed

limits of design and delivered

an evening full of surprises and

delight. Here are some of the

eye-catching, mind-blowing

designs showcased as part of

Contour, The University of Texas

at Austin’s 2012 fashion show.

If you are planning ahead, this

year’s fashion show will be on

April 18, 2013 and will be simply

astounding.

her students to Alison Lowery, a wig and make-up

specialist in the Department of Theatre and Dance.

Lowery asked the questions she would ask actors as

they prepared for a role: Was your life happy or sad?

What kind of work did you do? How fulfilling were

your relationships? The answers to these questions

are etched in the skin around the eyes and mouth;

the answers determined the course of the transfor-

mation—just as they do over the life course.

Randi Shultz was transformed from a college

student to an 80 year-old in the course of an hour.

Fingerman says, “Students sense that they will,

one day, be old. Because that time seems so remote

to them now, older people are seen as ‘other.’ They

now have a new understanding of what they have

learned.”

5

Make an impact

Love Sick?

Written by Dr. Tim Loving for Science of Relationships (scienceofrelationships.com)

Several years ago, I read a journal article in which the researchers reported that individuals who had recently fallen in love (i.e., they were ‘madly, deeply in love’, or experiencing what researchers refer to as passionate love) had higher levels of cortisol than did individuals in long-term relationships or those in no relationship at all.1 If you’re unfamiliar with cortisol, it is one of the human body’s primary stress hormones and affects a host of bodily processes (e.g., metabolism and immune function). Importantly, high levels of cortisol can eventually weaken the immune system and undermine physical health. Admit-tedly, this finding baffled me. If chronically high levels of cortisol can be bad for health, then how does that explain the overwhelmingly positive impression people have of being passionately in love? I’ve yet to find a Valentine’s Day card that reads, “I love you so much that you make me susceptible to pneumonia.” Importantly, researchers in the original study collected a blood sample (to measure cortisol) from study participants after an inten-sive interview that was designed to confirm participants were indeed ‘madly, deeply in love’ (and not just crazy). This intrigued me. Fall-ing in love with another person is a major life transition—it may be positive, but it’s a transition nonetheless, and transitions necessitate change. Think about it. When you fall for another person, your self-concept changes, your daily routines change, your relationships with friends change, and so on. All change requires adaptation, and adapt-ing to any new environment is stressful to some degree. Perhaps just reminding people of falling in love, and the associated changes, was enough to temporarily raise their cortisol levels.

My lab subsequently set out to further investi-gate this effect.2 We reasoned that falling in love would affect relationship-focused people (i.e., they think a lot about relationships) more than less relationship focused individuals—because all the transitions that come with falling in love should be more salient, or obvious, to more relationship-focused people. To test this, we asked 29 women, all of whom reported experiencing high levels of passion, to come into our lab and engage in one of two ‘guided imagery’ tasks. Specifically, half of the women relived the moment they realized they were in love with their current partners. They closed their eyes and recreated that moment as vividly as possible, and then talked and wrote about the expe-rience in as much detail as possible. The other half of the women in the control group relived the mo-ment they realized they wanted to be friends with someone who was of the same age and sex as their dating partners. We collected saliva samples before and after the guided imagery tasks so that we could determine whether the mental reflection changed cortisol levels. We also asked all of the women to indicate how much they tended to think about their relationships in general. Cortisol levels increased when women thought about falling in love, but how much they increased

depended on how relationship-focused they were: Cortisol levels dropped shortly after the guided imagery if they were ‘low’ relation-ship thinkers, but cortisol levels continued to rise for up to 30 minutes if they were ‘high’ relationship thinkers. Women in the ‘friendship’ guided imagery session showed no increases in cortisol. In other words, just asking a woman to think about falling in love is enough to cause an increase in cortisol, especially if she is more apt to think about relationships already. Does this mean falling in love is stressful? It would appear so, espe-cially for some more than others. But it doesn’t necessarily mean fall-ing in love is ‘bad stress’. Not all stress undermines health, and there are also other possible reasons for increases in cortisol. For example, increases in cortisol may simply reflect arousal more generally. There’s a reason we say somebody ‘turns us on’, and arousal, attraction, and passion tend to go hand in hand. My students and I, and others, are working to figure all this out. In the meantime, it’s probably safe to assume the passion in your relationship (whether it’s there today or tomorrow) won’t make you sick.

1 Marazziti, D., & Canale, D. (2004). Hormonal changes when falling in love. Psychoneuroendocrinology 29, 931–936.

2 Loving, T. J., Crockett, E. E., & Paxson, A. A. (2009). Passionate love and relationship thinkers: Experimental evidence for acute cortisol elevations in women. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 34, 939–946.

Tim Loving, faculty member in Human Development and Family Sciences,

is a founding member of Science of Relationships (scienceofrelationships.

com). Science of Relationships is really just that—active and productive

researchers in the field of interpersonal relationships writing and discuss-

ing their field of expertise. Scienceofrelationships.com has recently been

awarded the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s Media Prize

for the best piece or collection of pieces in popular media.

6

InternIng at the ePICenter Of everythIng

If there was a place to be in the summer of 2012, London had to be it.

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee followed by the 2012 Summer Olympics

focused the world’s attention on London, and right there in the big middle

of it all was Alexandra Dieck, a textiles and apparel junior working at

Gomez-Gracia as an intern.

However, work came first for Alexandra. She helped Patricia Gomez-

Gracia, the brand’s owner, designer, and CFO, launch new collections,

prepared fabric choices and swatches for international buyers, and aided

in the construction of a one-of-a-kind shift dress.

In addition to gaining real-world experience in the international high-

end apparel market and learning how a small luxury brand works from the

bottom up, Dieck had a ring-side seat for this year’s most exciting events.

Peer exClusIOn anD lIttle laMé vests

There is nothing more elusive than a child in the wild. This is what Suzanne

Fanger, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Human Development

and Family Sciences, discovered. She designed a novel solution to a meth-

odological dilemma.

Fanger was interested in better understanding early relational aggres-

sion. Typically, social interaction and conflict resolution among young

children took place in a laboratory with an adult observer very close by. In

order to hear and record the children’s interactions, the observer needed

to be quite close to the observed children. The proximity of adults impacts

how the children interact with one another.

In order to examine gender differences in peer exclusion, a normal

form of relational aggression employed by young children of both genders,

Fanger needed to observe the children interacting in the most natural set-

ting available, the comparative chaos of the playground. In order to monitor

the children’s interactions, Fanger designed sparkly gold lamé vests that

had wireless microphones and transmitters—about the size of an iPhone—

sewn into the lining.

The more active children encountered a small difficulty with the vests’

design; loose fit caused the tranmitters to bounce against the children’s

backs as they jumped and ran. Fanger says, “The more active kids were

bothered by the flapping, so a research assistant came up with kid-sized

backpacks which allowed the kids to run and jump without all the flapping.”

The observers could record the children’s social exchanges without very

close proximity.

Fanger found that there were differences in how the genders use peer

exclusion, but gender does not tell the whole story. She found that while

almost all of the girls excluded their peers, not all boys commonly did so.

However, boys who were more liked or powerful amongst peers did exclude

more frequently.

Suzanne Marie Fanger’s research findings “Peer exclusion in preschool

children’s play: Naturalistic observations in a playground setting” was

published in the April 2012 Merrill-Palmer Quarterly.

Do the work

internship impact: The numbers Speak for Themselves

In the School of Human Ecology, we offer an array of internship

experiences giving our students real-world experience. While we

boast about how incredible an internship experience can be for

our students, we don’t often talk about the impact our internships

have on the state of Texas. And, until now, we haven’t been able to

show just how robust our internship programs are. We owe these

successes to the handful of faculty who have made these programs

what they are. The impact is huge:

The School of Human Ecology placed 242 students in internship

positions, all of which fulfilled course requirements (and all of our

students were successful in completing their internships). 207(or

86%) of those students had direct contact with clients, patients,

customers, or entrepreneurs. Our students spent a cumulative

92,928 hours in the 2011–2012 academic year working in

internship positions.

Where were those hours spent? 11% of our students worked as

interns on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin; 65%

worked as interns in Austin; 13% worked in the state of Texas;

11% worked elsewhere in the United States. Just one student was

placed in an international internship. Our students, through internship

programs, worked a total of 81,408 hours in the state of Texas.

While in those internships, our students successfully completed

a total of 10,648 credit hours while gaining invaluable work

experience.

And working hard? Our students averaged 32 hours per week at

the site of their internship.

In addition to on-site effort, our students wrote (a lot). For the

2011–2012 academic year, our students generated, on average,

37.5 pages per student per semester of internship site reports,

research papers, and reflection papers (this number does not

include oral reports and presentations). That is a total of 18,150

pages of reports for all students participating in internship programs

for the 2011–2012 academic year. That’s a lot of grading.

Our students working in internships require a great deal of

supervision and guidance. The School of Human Ecology has

5 faculty members directly supervising the efforts of students.

Those faculty members spent a cumulative 1,127 hours per

semester managing and monitoring student placements.

huMan eCOlOgy bOasts fOur unrestrICteD PresIDent’s enDOweD sChOlarshIP (uPes)reCIPIents

Four students from the School of Human Ecology will receive the

prestigious Unrestricted President’s Endowed Scholarships (UPES) for

2012–2013.

Many of our UPES students will go on to medical school, and at least

one will forge a career in business. The UPES helps our students achieve

the goals they have set for themselves.

viShaL JadhavHometown: Austin, Texas

Major: Nutritional Sciences

Year: Sophmore

what is the most memorable experience you have had at the university of texas at austin? Freshman Research Initiative

experience in the Biobrick Lab with Dr. Grace Choy.

what is the biggest issue facing your generation and what is your role in the solution? Diabetes is the largest problem facing my

generation. Being a nutritional science major, I will work on research in

this field and increase awareness in my generation.

ruba aLaFiFiHometown: Houston, Texas

Major: Human Development and Family Sciences/Premed

Year: Senior

what does receiving the uePs help you do? Besides

financial assistance, UEPS will help highlight my extracurricular

accomplishments. I hope that it will emphasize that I have made effort

to not only do well in my coursework, but also broaden my knowledge

and experience as much as I can in different disciplines because I

believe that this will ultimately make me a better professional.

Mary aLice SaLLManHometown: Dallas, Texas

Major: Nutritional Sciences

Year: Junior

what are your plans after graduation? After graduation in May, 2013,

I plan to attend medical school and receive an M.D. I am considering

pursuing a master’s degree in public health simultaneously. I hope to

focus on improving the lives of children, both here in the United States

and abroad.

aLex keLLyHometown: Austin, Texas

Major: Textiles and Apparel

Year: Sophomore

Of all the classes you have taken so far, which class has been the most interesting? The most interesting class I’ve taken so far has been

Culture, Gender and Appearance with Dr. Kay Jay. I have loved learning

about the history of dress and what people used to wear centuries

ago. What people can wear says a lot about their time, socio-economic

status, occupation, gender or beliefs.

sChOOl Of huMan eCOlOgy In sOuth afrICa, ChIna, Italy, anD InDIa

By Martha Berry, Program Coordinator for Honors and Special Programs

in the School of Human Ecology and Jeanne Freeland-Graves, Bess Heflin

Centennial Professor in Nutritional Sciences

This summer Jeanne Freeland-Graves led twenty undergraduate nutrition

students on the adventure of a lifetime across South Africa. Based at the

historic Stellenbosch University, set in the lush winelands.

The nutrition faculty at the Tygerberg Medical Campus lectured on

food-based dietary guidelines; pediatric and sports nutrition; public health

issues and strategies; food history and culture; food security; and HIV, TB

and diabetes in South Africa.

Students took a course on the unique culture and political history of

South Africa and learned the terrible impact of apartheid on society, the

incredible forgiveness of past horrors by the Truth and Conciliation pro-

cess, and the intricate development of the current political system.

Learning from direct experience, students travelled to Cape Town,

visiting community health clinics and a home for children with AIDS and

cancer. The students observed community gardens and job training

programs, learned to make traditional Xhosa cuisine (curries, chakalaka,

samp and beans), and conducted market basket analysis and noted nutri-

ent labeling at retail food outlets.

In summer 2013 Freeland-Graves will take a new group of adventurous

students to study international nutrition in Italy with plans to return to

South Africa in the summer of 2014.

Jonathan Chen will lead textiles and apparel, Asian studies, and busi-

ness students as they explore China. Students will follow the apparel sup-

ply chain, from the cotton fields to the department store. Students will be

immersed in the culture of China, with visits to museums, cultural events,

and to the Great Wall.

In summer of 2014, we have our sights set on India.

The UPES helps our

students achieve

the goals they have

set for themselves.

7

8

Celebrate suCCess

Celebrate the past

The Journal of Marriage and the Family (JMF), published

by the National Council on Family Relations, has been the

leading research journal on the family for over 70 years. The

University of Texas at Austin has been selected to host JMF

for 2012–2016 under the editorship of Sociology’s Kelly Raley.

JMF will strengthen the national visibility of family research

programs across campus and provide excellent training op-

portunities for our students.

1912 Mary ‘Mamie’ Gearing

was chosen as the first

faculty member of the newly

named School of Domestic

Economy at The University of

Texas at Austin.

1930 The shacks

were hastily

constructed affairs

that frequently

leaked.

1912–1933 Structures left

over from WWI, the shacks

were the first home to Mary

Gearing, her growing faculty,

and her students.

1933 As a valued member of the Faculty Building

Committee, Mary Gearing (front row, far right)

placed her thumbprint on the master plan for The

University of Texas at Austin’s 1925–1937 building

program. This is the groundbreaking for the Home

Economics Building.

1934 The Home

Economics

building some

time shortly after

its completion.

1934 Gearing Hall’s plan

included rooms featuring

furnishings that date

from the founding of the

Republic of Texas. Many of

these exquisite furnishings

were given as a gift to The

University of Texas at Austin

from Mary Gearing’s own

household.

1946 Students were—and still

are—drawn to Gearing Hall’s

peaceful courtyard and deep

porches. Then as now, the

courtyard is an ideal space to

gather for study groups.

1950 For a short time, Dr.

Phyllis Richards taught in the

Lab School’s classroom for

3 year-olds. The Lab School

was established in 1927

making it the first in the state

of Texas.

1962 The Home Economics

faculty gathered for a formal

portrait in 1962 to mark the 50

years on the campus of The

University of Texas at Austin.

1930 In spite of the

less-than-ideal laboratory

facilities, research

underpinned the discipline

from the start.

celebrating a century of change

→ → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → →

The Texas Campus Career Council (TC3)

has honored nancy Prideaux with the

2012 Robert Murff Excellence Award for

outstanding support of career services

on the campus of The University of Texas

at Austin. In addition to her work with the

Retail Merchandising internship program,

Prideaux directs the UT in NYC program.

9

sheldon ekland-Olson, director of the School of Human

Ecology and the Rapoport Centennial Professor of Liberal

Arts in Sociology, has been named a 2013 Regents’ Outstand-

ing Teaching Award recipient. The award, the highest honor

bestowed by the University of Texas System, recognizes

“extraordinary classroom performance and innovation in un-

dergraduate instruction.”

Marci gleason, assistant professor in the

Department of Human Development and

Family Sciences, has received the College

of Natural Sciences’ Outstanding Teaching

Award for 2012–2013.

Jane tillman, lecturer in the Department of Nutritional Sciences,

received the College of Natural Sciences’ Outreach Excellence

Award for 2012–2013. Tillman’s commitment to the National

Wildlife Federation was also recognized as she was named 2012

Volunteer of the Year for her efforts to make Austin the state’s first

certified Wildlife Habitat City.

During her tenure as Chair

of the Department of Home

Economics in the 1960s and

1970s, Margaret Eppright

crafted the blueprint for the

School of Human Ecology.

1964 Lorene Lane Rogers

(1st row, far left) would go

on to serve as university

president in 1974. Rogers

would become the first

female president of a major

research university in the

United States.

1976 Through a

turbulent time, the

Home Economics

faculty continued

to grow and thrive.

This building is

the heart of the

School of Human

Ecology. The

building’s name

was changed to

Mary E. Gearing

Hall in 1976.

1983 Mary Ellen Durrett

served as department chair

from 1972–1988. In addition

to shaping the Department

of Home Economics, Dr.

Durrett sustained a vital and

robust research career.

circa 1985 The Department

of Home Economics has been

blessed with the unwavering sup-

port of these most astounding

women. This support continues to

the present time. These are truly

the “pioneer women of Texas.”

The work continues

as a new generation

creates change in

the world.

Gearing Hall continues to

be the heart of the School

of Human Ecology. In 2009

the Pioneer Room became

a permanent exhibit space

for the Historical Textiles and

Apparel Collection.

The kitchen on the 4th floor

of Gearing Hall underwent a

complete renovation in 1999.

The quantity food laboratory

now fully supports nutritional

sciences classes.

In 2008 the Department of

Human Ecology became the

School of Human Ecology.

Alumni, donors, and friends

made this essential transfor-

mation possible.

The Priscilla Pond Flawn Lab

School, now housed in the

Seay Building, continues to

nurture roots for life-long

learning.

The Dell Pediatric Research Institute (DPRI) opened

its doors in 2009. The state-of-the-art facility

provides a collaborative wet-bench research facility

for nutritional sciences and pharmacy faculty,

graduate, and undergraduate students. Researchers

are addressing the most devastating illnesses of

childhood: cancer, obesity, and birth defects.

Our students took this photograph

outside of Stellenbosch, South Africa,

2012. We feel the same way.

→ → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → → →

Paul eastwick Joins the department of human development and Family Sciences

Human beings are complex creatures. Nowhere is this complexity more apparent than in the ways we go about choosing romantic partners. Paul Eastwick, a social and evolutionary psychologist, is inter-ested in the difference between the qualities we say are essential in a potential mate and the qualities that ultimately appeal to us in a dating or marriage partner. How does it happen that when we say we would only date a Cary Grant or a Grace Kelly but find ourselves, a bit later, happily married to an Ernest Borgnine or a Lucille Ball? Eastwick has chosen a novel approach to answering this ques-tion—he has carefully examined speed dating events to get a clear picture of attraction in action. He has found that once two people meet face-to-face, the qualities people say they want in a partner take a back seat to their gut reactions. “When it comes to romance, face-to-face impression really matters,” says Eastwick. The speed dating structure, with its time limits and established protocols, provides a great laboratory for examining the evolution-ary mechanics of attraction. In broader terms, Eastwick is synthesizing evolutionary perspec-tives to explain what is observed in social psychology and vice versa. He is also interested in the phenomenon of romantic compatibility and the formation of romantic attachments. Eastwick joined the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences in September, 2012. He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from Northwestern University and joins us from the Department of Psychology at Texas A&M University.

The department of nutritional Sciences welcomes dr. Jaimie davis

If Jaimie Davis could give you two pieces of advice regarding our diet and the diets of our children, that advice would be to eliminate fruit juices from our children’s diets and make certain that we don’t skip meals. The first piece of advice arises from a growing set of studies indicating the harm that the empty calories and the physiological response linked to sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup cause in the body. According to Davis, skipping meals increases visceral adiposity, or belly fat, which in turn raises fasting glucose, an indication of an el-evated risk of developing diabetes. Davis says, “Studies have shown that meal skipping impacts the volume of belly fat. An individual who eats only two meals per day will have 40% more belly fat six months later.” Consuming fruit juices containing high fructose corn syrup or other forms of sugar sets in motion a chain of physiological events. In addition to the biochemical chain of events including raising blood insulin levels, Davis speculates that consuming sugar-sweet-ened beverages triggers a neurological response similar to that found in addiction. Dr. Jaimie Davis joined the faculty of the Department of Nutri-tional Sciences in January, 2012 as an assistant professor. Davis is building a robust research program focused on developing dietary and physical activity interventions designed to help minority and low socio-economic status infants, children, and adolescents. In ad-dition to population studies, Davis examines the how the interaction of diet and genes influence metabolic disease risk. Davis is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, having completed the Coordinated Program in Dietetics and the doctoral program in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. Davis has returned to the Forty Acres after completing a postdoctoral fellow-ship at the University of Southern California in the Department of Preventive Medicine.

10

Change the world

Stefano Tiziani Joins the department of nutritional Sciences

Our fingerprints are unique. So are our metabolic profiles. Metabolomics, an emerging field in chemical biology, is con-cerned with measuring the resultant chemicals as metabolic pro-cesses proceed. These chemicals, or biomarkers, indicate the health or disease status of an individual. Our metabolic fingerprints are the result of the air we breathe, the foods we consume, the habits we maintain, and the drugs we take. Because many biomarkers can be measured simultaneously, scientists, like Stefano Tiziani, get a snapshot of what is occurring at the cellular level when disease is present in an individual. This snapshot is invaluable to doctors working to cure a disease like leukemia. Typically, doctors administer standard combinations of theraputic agents and measure their efficacy by examining how the patient seems to be faring. Using the tools of metabolomics, Tiziani can test combinations of different drugs in different doses in an attempt to locate the ideal combination of drugs for a specific patient. In this way, the choices of drugs can more specifically target cancer cells, making cancer treatment less toxic for the body as a whole. By profiling the bone marrow cells that are abnormal and give rise to disease like leukemia, Tiziani can better understand the cell metabolism of these abnormal cells before and during treatment. This will lead to personalized treatment that is less toxic and may diminish instances of resistance or relapse. Tiziani says, “With a metabolomics-based system biology approach, we aim to understand the role of nutrients in regulating cancer metabolism and how to intervene at the nutritional level. That is where health or disease begins.” Stefano Tiziani, an assistant professor, joined the Department of Nutritional Sciences in September, 2012. Tiziani received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University and joins us from the Sanford-Burn-ham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

are yOu One Of us?

The School of Human Ecology has gone by many different names (as have our departments and divisions). We deeply honor our past and all those who have helped us become what we are and who have shaped what we will be. We want you to know that you are a valued member of our extended Longhorn family. We have been part of the College of Liberal Arts and part of the College of Natural Sciences, where we are today. We were once known as the Department of Home Economics, but we are now the School of Human Ecology. We once housed the Division of Interior Design. Both the Coordinated Program in Dietetics and the Coordi-nated Undergraduate Program (CUP) belong here. Our programs included Home Economics Education and Child Development and Family Relationships. If any of those names describe your work as a student at The University of Texas at Austin, you are part of our family. We are so glad you are here.

wIth gratItuDe, we wIsh a fOnD farewell

We wish the very best to our much beloved faculty who have retired

from The University of Texas at Austin.

Suzanne Curtis retires from the Department of Nutritional Sciences

after 10 years of teaching. While she will be missed by her students (and

all of us in the School of Human Ecology), we know that she will have an

opportunity to spend more time with her adorable grandson Jordan.

Sandi Dillon has been an integral part of the Lab School family for

nearly 23 years. Sandi is a magician of circle time in the 5-year-olds

classroom. Her beautiful smile and easy laugh will be missed by faculty,

graduate students, and undergraduates.

After nearly 22 years of teaching and research, Ted Huston retires

from the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences. He

has guided countless graduate students through the perils of develop-

ing a research topic to the final defense of their theses and disserta-

tions. He has truly made an impact on personal relationships research.

There is absolutely nothing about Kay Southworth’s characteristic

energy and enthusiasm that would indicate that she has taught at The

University of Texas at Austin for more than 28 years. Her dedication to

her students, to the Dietetics programs, to the university has shaped

lives and futures.

We are honored to have worked with Suzanne Curtis, Sandi Dillon, Ted Huston, and Kay Southworth.

waLTer wiLLeTTJean Andrews Centennial Visiting Professor, Harvard UniversityOctober 18, 2012

cenTenniaL ceLebraTionNovember 8–9, 2012

FaShion ShowApril 18, 2013

nuTriTionaL ScienceS SuMMer inSTiTuTeSummer, 2013

upcoming events

What is happening with you? We would like

to know about the wonderful work you are doing!

Please take a moment to drop us a line.

Melissa Tucker, Alumni Relations | melissa.tucker@austin.utexas.edu | 512 475 6710

The School of Human Ecology | The University of Texas at Austin | 1 University Station, A2700 | Austin, Texas 78712

The University of Texas at Austin | 1 University Station, A2700 | Austin, Texas 78712