FEATURES

50 Famous IU Alumni: S–W

Sportscaster Sage Steel, actor Kheng Hua Tan, integrationist George Taliaferro, basketball great Isiah Thomas, Wikipedia CEO Jimmy Wales, tennis legend Venus Williams, and presidential candidate Wendell Willkie are among our 50 famous IU Alumni.

50 Famous IU Alumni: P–S

Politician Mike Pence, screenwriter Angelo Pizzo, war correspondent Ernie Pyle, politician Dan Quayle, puzzlemaster Will Shortz, Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh, and Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz are among our 50 Famous IU Alumni.

50 Famous IU Alumni: L–P

Author Ross Lockridge Jr., singer Sylvia McNair, musician Edgar Meyer, Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton, television honcho Ryan Murphy, and treasury secretary Paul H. O’Neill, and broadcast journalist Jane Pauley are among our 50 Famous IU Alumni.

50 Famous IU Alumni: G–K

Robert Gates, Michael D. Higgins, Jamie Hyneman, Booker T. Jones, Lilly King, Kevin Kline, Ted Kluszewski, and Michael Koryta are among our 50 Famous Indiana University Alumni.

Pat East: Community Entrepreneur

Pat East launched Hanapin Marketing in a spare bedroom with an initial investment of $2,000—the cost of a laptop computer. It grew into a 75-employee industry leader in pay- per-click advertising and merged with U.K.-based Brainlabs in 2020.

50 Famous IU Alumni: C–F

John Chambers, Bob Chapek, Suzanne Collins, Laverne Cox, Mark Cuban, Dick Enberg, and Janie Fricke are among our 50 Famous Indiana University Alumni.

50 Famous IU Alumni: B–C

Joshua Bell, Walt Bellamy, Angela Brown, Joe Buck, Meg Cabot, Paul Caine, and Hoagy Carmichael are among our 50 Famous Indiana University Alumni.

50 Famous IU Alumni

In its 201-year history, Indiana University has turned out tens of thousands of outstanding alumni in every imaginable field. Their contributions have helped to define America and to some extent the world at large.

50 Famous Alumni: A–B

Trigger Alpert, David Anspaugh, Kenny Aronoff, Howard Ashman, David Baker, Brady Barr, and Jonathan Banks are among our 50 Famous Indiana University Alumni.

Great Expectations: Q&A Interviews with IU Coaches

Never in the history of Indiana University Athletics has there been a season like the one about to begin. Coming off a painful pandemic year, IU teams are poised to do great things and expectations have never been higher.

An Astounding Adaptation

In 1985, when Marsha Herman-Betzen and Keith Betzen told their daughter, Rachel, then 8, they were going to buy a ramshackle, four-story house on 10 wooded acres near Unionville, Indiana, she wept.

Hardware Store Modernism

Tucked away on a small side street in an east-side neighborhood, Laura Plummer and Michael Nelson’s ultra-contemporary home stands in contrast to everything that surrounds it.

Sheltering in Style

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomingtonians, like the rest of the world, found themselves spending significantly more time at home—working, home-schooling children, or just staying safe.

A Modern Home with a Sense of History

Their future home had been on the market for just two hours when Sharon and Brad Fugate stepped inside with real estate agent Scott Owens in April 2012.

Photographers of Bloom: Haley Brown

Haley Brown has been a professional photographer for more than 10 years and enjoys photographing landscapes, interior and exterior commercial buildings, portraits, and more.

Photographers of Bloom: Jim Krause

Jim Krause describes himself as “an accomplished adventurer, photographer, documentarian, teacher, writer, producer, musician, and composer.”

The Photographers of Bloom Magazine

When Bloom was founded 15 years ago, we pledged that not only would the writing be first rate, but that the design and photography would be also.

Nicole Browne: Monroe County Clerk

As early voters wrapped around the block in downtown Bloomington last fall, Nicole Browne, the first Black woman elected as Monroe County’s Clerk of Courts, often walked out to greet them.

Maria E. Hamilton Abegunde: Exploring the Legacy of Slavery

In 2014, Maria E. Hamilton Abegunde was the first person to earn a doctorate in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University—a distinction that was groundbreaking not only in its accomplishment, but also for the revolutionary nature of the research she continues to do.

Larissa Danielle: Visual Artist

Artist Larissa Danielle’s multimedia work has often been inspired by political and social realities. In 2020, those realities felt particularly overwhelming.

Dr. Tashera Perry: Obstetrician-Gynecologist

“Fun fact,” says Dr. Tashera Perry, an OB/GYN with Indiana University Health, adjunct clinical assistant professor for the IU School of Medicine, and the associate chief medical information officer for IU Health South Central Region. “I’m a high school dropout.”

Jenn Cristy: Musician

Jenn Cristy has a credo for these challenging times: “Be kind and have conversations with people.”

Gladys DeVane: Storyteller

Gladys DeVane, 81, is a storyteller, scriptwriter, and actor. She first learned stagecraft competing in oratorical contests as a child and acting in plays in high school and college.

Vanessa McClary: Kiwanis Leader

Whether it’s ensuring that local elementary school children have winter coats or cheering up the Bloomington skyline with hot air balloons, Vanessa McClary cares that the work she does in the community has tangible results.

Elizabeth Mitchell: Historian

For more than 40 years, Elizabeth Mitchell has been documenting African American history and correcting the white version of that history.

Selena Drake: Social Justice Advocate

Selena Drake, who was raised in Gary, Indiana, says she never truly experienced racism prior to attending Indiana University. A racially charged incident that occurred as she started her freshman year in 2016 changed that.

Doris Sims: 40 Years in Public Service

Doris Sims has seen the country “go through hills and valleys” when it comes to race. “A lot—especially within this past year—has happened within our country with dealing with racial inequality, and dealing with issues of equity and diversity,” she says.

Dixie Ferrer: Texture Artist

Brown County resident Dixie Ferrer considers herself an artist of texture, exploring the combined mediums of oil paint and cold wax.

Joel Washington: Music Is His Inspiration

A self-taught artist, Joel Washington’s work can be found in Bloomington galleries and restaurants, in departments across Indiana University, and at the Indiana State Museum.

Jennifer Mujezinovic: Portrait Painter

For four years, Bloomington’s Jennifer Mujezinovic painted the whimsical portrait covers for the All About children’s book series. After 12 total book covers, Mujezinovic has decided to begin taking a new creative direction.

Meg Lagodzki: Painting an Unnatural Landscape

After Meg Lagodzki had a serious illness that resulted in the removal of her thyroid, she was entirely unable to speak for two months, and then only in a whisper for a year. Depressed, she coped by returning to oil painting, something she had given up for 10 years to focus on her family.

Mark Blaney: Versatile Artist

Even before painter and ceramicist Mark Blaney moved to Bloomington in 2010, he had contributed artwork to various local arts endeavors, including albums and publications by local composer Malcolm Dalglish.

Kevin Pope: Artwork That Tells Stories

Cartoonist Kevin Pope has illustrated for Playboy magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Mad Magazine, the NBC animated show Sammy, Pepsi TV commercials, and the comics Inside Out and The Far Side.

Jerome Harste: Multi-Genre Artist

Upon retiring from Indiana University as a distinguished professor of literacy, culture, and language in 2006, Jerome Harste began studying with renowned artists in several states.

Patricia Rhoden: Prolific Artist

After 37 years as an art teacher, Patricia Rhoden retired in 2013 and now spends most days creating oil and acrylic paintings in her Nashville, Indiana, studio. Much of her work is impressionistic, and she’s known for her silver and gold leaf floral landscapes.

Joe and Bess Lee: Art with a Cause

In 2019, husband-and-wife team Joe and Bess Lee exhibited more than a dozen 2 1/2-by-3-foot acrylic paintings on paper in the style of mid-20th-century circus sideshow banners in a show called Professor Animalia’s Menagerie of Struggling Species in Bloomington and Indianapolis.

Amy Brier: Stone Carver

In the age of digital modeling and 3-D laser printers, working with a hammer and chisel may seem “kind of archaic,” admits stone carver Amy Brier. But it’s precisely this connection to human origins that makes her craft compelling.

Martina Celerin: Tapestries That Tell a Story

Martina Celerin’s fiber art combines traditional weaving techniques with felting and reclaimed materials like shells, rocks, and old jewelry to create tapestries that tell a visual story.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: The Economy

Remember that we all share many more values than we have differences. When we vote, we won’t be doing it for our candidate, we will be doing it in no small part for our beloved Bloomington.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: LGBTQ+ Rights

Discrimination against LGBTQ Americans, particularly those who identify as transgender, is still very much a reality, and this is all the more true for LGBTQ Hoosiers, since Indiana offers fewer protections than many other states. Your vote in this election will help determine our future.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: The Media

Choked. Smashed. Tear-gassed. Pushed. Assaulted. Hit. Grabbed. Shoved. Targeted. Shot with projectile. Caught in crossfire. Struck. Pepper sprayed. Arrested. Threatened. Slammed. Chased. Attacked. Robbed. Held at gunpoint.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Law Enforcement

These are unprecedented times. Unless you have been living on the high seas, devoid of all interaction with the world, you have witnessed as I have the unrest, distrust, and uncertainty plaguing this country.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Education

In higher education, state support for our universities has declined precipitously. Our universities are no longer “state-supported.” At best they’re “state-assisted,” with funding falling to approximately 20% of need.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Partisanship vs. Polarization

The challenge Americans face these days is, in the words of conservative fundraiser Greg Munford, “to engage in passionate disagreement while not damaging the political freedom which allows for that constructive disagreement.”

VOTE—What’s At Stake: The Pandemic

The current administration, ideologically, wants to do nothing. It wants to let the virus liquidate the old and unwell; to purge the “rotten” out of society. It wants to take a long run on wishful-thinking vice action, the long run to fanciful herd immunity.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: The Courts

The courts are squarely in view now, along with the 2020 pandemic and so much else at stake November 3. The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reminds us: For our country’s long-term health, few election issues outrank the power of the president to appoint and the Senate to confirm federal judges.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: The Arts

The arts are having a moment. Called on to serve as both a witness to tragedy and an inspiration to act, artists have channeled the grief of a nation into eloquent works of art centered on Black lives, social justice, and economic equality.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Women’s Rights

Sleep-deprived women worry about housing, un(der)employment, home schooling, stalled career prospects, child care, elder care, birth control, medical care, welfare benefits, violence, addiction, divorce, and safety.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Guns

Like many other social, cultural, and public health issues, firearm safety doesn’t and can’t exist in isolation from other developments, such as civil rights, ideological extremism, redistricting, national and household economic health and inequality, and health care accessibility.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: The Environment

The two major presidential candidates, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, have both said they are trying to find a balance between economic prosperity and clean air, water, and land for all—but their approaches are vastly different.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Freedom of Speech

The First Amendment was first for a reason. It exists to keep our government and its agents from destroying the conditions necessary for democratic self-government. A government that does not lead its people toward tolerance and open debate leads them away from democracy.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Safety Net

Prior to COVID-19, 37% of all Hoosiers (nearly 1 million households) were already struggling, either living in poverty or hovering right above it in a category United Way refers to as ALICE—Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Democracy

Democracies are not Energizer bunnies, running forever like perpetual motion machines. Democracies wind down. They get sloppy . . . And they can die.

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FEATURES

50 Famous IU Alumni: S–W

Sportscaster Sage Steel, actor Kheng Hua Tan, integrationist George Taliaferro, basketball great Isiah Thomas, Wikipedia CEO Jimmy Wales, tennis legend Venus Williams, and presidential candidate Wendell Willkie are among our 50 famous IU Alumni.

50 Famous IU Alumni: P–S

Politician Mike Pence, screenwriter Angelo Pizzo, war correspondent Ernie Pyle, politician Dan Quayle, puzzlemaster Will Shortz, Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh, and Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz are among our 50 Famous IU Alumni.

50 Famous IU Alumni: L–P

Author Ross Lockridge Jr., singer Sylvia McNair, musician Edgar Meyer, Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton, television honcho Ryan Murphy, and treasury secretary Paul H. O’Neill, and broadcast journalist Jane Pauley are among our 50 Famous IU Alumni.

50 Famous IU Alumni: G–K

Robert Gates, Michael D. Higgins, Jamie Hyneman, Booker T. Jones, Lilly King, Kevin Kline, Ted Kluszewski, and Michael Koryta are among our 50 Famous Indiana University Alumni.

Pat East: Community Entrepreneur

Pat East launched Hanapin Marketing in a spare bedroom with an initial investment of $2,000—the cost of a laptop computer. It grew into a 75-employee industry leader in pay- per-click advertising and merged with U.K.-based Brainlabs in 2020.

50 Famous IU Alumni: C–F

John Chambers, Bob Chapek, Suzanne Collins, Laverne Cox, Mark Cuban, Dick Enberg, and Janie Fricke are among our 50 Famous Indiana University Alumni.

50 Famous IU Alumni: B–C

Joshua Bell, Walt Bellamy, Angela Brown, Joe Buck, Meg Cabot, Paul Caine, and Hoagy Carmichael are among our 50 Famous Indiana University Alumni.

50 Famous IU Alumni

In its 201-year history, Indiana University has turned out tens of thousands of outstanding alumni in every imaginable field. Their contributions have helped to define America and to some extent the world at large.

50 Famous Alumni: A–B

Trigger Alpert, David Anspaugh, Kenny Aronoff, Howard Ashman, David Baker, Brady Barr, and Jonathan Banks are among our 50 Famous Indiana University Alumni.

Great Expectations: Q&A Interviews with IU Coaches

Never in the history of Indiana University Athletics has there been a season like the one about to begin. Coming off a painful pandemic year, IU teams are poised to do great things and expectations have never been higher.

An Astounding Adaptation

In 1985, when Marsha Herman-Betzen and Keith Betzen told their daughter, Rachel, then 8, they were going to buy a ramshackle, four-story house on 10 wooded acres near Unionville, Indiana, she wept.

Hardware Store Modernism

Tucked away on a small side street in an east-side neighborhood, Laura Plummer and Michael Nelson’s ultra-contemporary home stands in contrast to everything that surrounds it.

Sheltering in Style

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomingtonians, like the rest of the world, found themselves spending significantly more time at home—working, home-schooling children, or just staying safe.

A Modern Home with a Sense of History

Their future home had been on the market for just two hours when Sharon and Brad Fugate stepped inside with real estate agent Scott Owens in April 2012.

Photographers of Bloom: Haley Brown

Haley Brown has been a professional photographer for more than 10 years and enjoys photographing landscapes, interior and exterior commercial buildings, portraits, and more.

Photographers of Bloom: Jim Krause

Jim Krause describes himself as “an accomplished adventurer, photographer, documentarian, teacher, writer, producer, musician, and composer.”

The Photographers of Bloom Magazine

When Bloom was founded 15 years ago, we pledged that not only would the writing be first rate, but that the design and photography would be also.

Nicole Browne: Monroe County Clerk

As early voters wrapped around the block in downtown Bloomington last fall, Nicole Browne, the first Black woman elected as Monroe County’s Clerk of Courts, often walked out to greet them.

Maria E. Hamilton Abegunde: Exploring the Legacy of Slavery

In 2014, Maria E. Hamilton Abegunde was the first person to earn a doctorate in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University—a distinction that was groundbreaking not only in its accomplishment, but also for the revolutionary nature of the research she continues to do.

Larissa Danielle: Visual Artist

Artist Larissa Danielle’s multimedia work has often been inspired by political and social realities. In 2020, those realities felt particularly overwhelming.

Dr. Tashera Perry: Obstetrician-Gynecologist

“Fun fact,” says Dr. Tashera Perry, an OB/GYN with Indiana University Health, adjunct clinical assistant professor for the IU School of Medicine, and the associate chief medical information officer for IU Health South Central Region. “I’m a high school dropout.”

Jenn Cristy: Musician

Jenn Cristy has a credo for these challenging times: “Be kind and have conversations with people.”

Gladys DeVane: Storyteller

Gladys DeVane, 81, is a storyteller, scriptwriter, and actor. She first learned stagecraft competing in oratorical contests as a child and acting in plays in high school and college.

Vanessa McClary: Kiwanis Leader

Whether it’s ensuring that local elementary school children have winter coats or cheering up the Bloomington skyline with hot air balloons, Vanessa McClary cares that the work she does in the community has tangible results.

Elizabeth Mitchell: Historian

For more than 40 years, Elizabeth Mitchell has been documenting African American history and correcting the white version of that history.

Selena Drake: Social Justice Advocate

Selena Drake, who was raised in Gary, Indiana, says she never truly experienced racism prior to attending Indiana University. A racially charged incident that occurred as she started her freshman year in 2016 changed that.

Doris Sims: 40 Years in Public Service

Doris Sims has seen the country “go through hills and valleys” when it comes to race. “A lot—especially within this past year—has happened within our country with dealing with racial inequality, and dealing with issues of equity and diversity,” she says.

Dixie Ferrer: Texture Artist

Brown County resident Dixie Ferrer considers herself an artist of texture, exploring the combined mediums of oil paint and cold wax.

Joel Washington: Music Is His Inspiration

A self-taught artist, Joel Washington’s work can be found in Bloomington galleries and restaurants, in departments across Indiana University, and at the Indiana State Museum.

Jennifer Mujezinovic: Portrait Painter

For four years, Bloomington’s Jennifer Mujezinovic painted the whimsical portrait covers for the All About children’s book series. After 12 total book covers, Mujezinovic has decided to begin taking a new creative direction.

Meg Lagodzki: Painting an Unnatural Landscape

After Meg Lagodzki had a serious illness that resulted in the removal of her thyroid, she was entirely unable to speak for two months, and then only in a whisper for a year. Depressed, she coped by returning to oil painting, something she had given up for 10 years to focus on her family.

Mark Blaney: Versatile Artist

Even before painter and ceramicist Mark Blaney moved to Bloomington in 2010, he had contributed artwork to various local arts endeavors, including albums and publications by local composer Malcolm Dalglish.

Kevin Pope: Artwork That Tells Stories

Cartoonist Kevin Pope has illustrated for Playboy magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Mad Magazine, the NBC animated show Sammy, Pepsi TV commercials, and the comics Inside Out and The Far Side.

Jerome Harste: Multi-Genre Artist

Upon retiring from Indiana University as a distinguished professor of literacy, culture, and language in 2006, Jerome Harste began studying with renowned artists in several states.

Patricia Rhoden: Prolific Artist

After 37 years as an art teacher, Patricia Rhoden retired in 2013 and now spends most days creating oil and acrylic paintings in her Nashville, Indiana, studio. Much of her work is impressionistic, and she’s known for her silver and gold leaf floral landscapes.

Joe and Bess Lee: Art with a Cause

In 2019, husband-and-wife team Joe and Bess Lee exhibited more than a dozen 2 1/2-by-3-foot acrylic paintings on paper in the style of mid-20th-century circus sideshow banners in a show called Professor Animalia’s Menagerie of Struggling Species in Bloomington and Indianapolis.

Amy Brier: Stone Carver

In the age of digital modeling and 3-D laser printers, working with a hammer and chisel may seem “kind of archaic,” admits stone carver Amy Brier. But it’s precisely this connection to human origins that makes her craft compelling.

Martina Celerin: Tapestries That Tell a Story

Martina Celerin’s fiber art combines traditional weaving techniques with felting and reclaimed materials like shells, rocks, and old jewelry to create tapestries that tell a visual story.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: The Economy

Remember that we all share many more values than we have differences. When we vote, we won’t be doing it for our candidate, we will be doing it in no small part for our beloved Bloomington.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: LGBTQ+ Rights

Discrimination against LGBTQ Americans, particularly those who identify as transgender, is still very much a reality, and this is all the more true for LGBTQ Hoosiers, since Indiana offers fewer protections than many other states. Your vote in this election will help determine our future.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: The Media

Choked. Smashed. Tear-gassed. Pushed. Assaulted. Hit. Grabbed. Shoved. Targeted. Shot with projectile. Caught in crossfire. Struck. Pepper sprayed. Arrested. Threatened. Slammed. Chased. Attacked. Robbed. Held at gunpoint.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Law Enforcement

These are unprecedented times. Unless you have been living on the high seas, devoid of all interaction with the world, you have witnessed as I have the unrest, distrust, and uncertainty plaguing this country.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Education

In higher education, state support for our universities has declined precipitously. Our universities are no longer “state-supported.” At best they’re “state-assisted,” with funding falling to approximately 20% of need.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Partisanship vs. Polarization

The challenge Americans face these days is, in the words of conservative fundraiser Greg Munford, “to engage in passionate disagreement while not damaging the political freedom which allows for that constructive disagreement.”

VOTE—What’s At Stake: The Pandemic

The current administration, ideologically, wants to do nothing. It wants to let the virus liquidate the old and unwell; to purge the “rotten” out of society. It wants to take a long run on wishful-thinking vice action, the long run to fanciful herd immunity.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: The Courts

The courts are squarely in view now, along with the 2020 pandemic and so much else at stake November 3. The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reminds us: For our country’s long-term health, few election issues outrank the power of the president to appoint and the Senate to confirm federal judges.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: The Arts

The arts are having a moment. Called on to serve as both a witness to tragedy and an inspiration to act, artists have channeled the grief of a nation into eloquent works of art centered on Black lives, social justice, and economic equality.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Women’s Rights

Sleep-deprived women worry about housing, un(der)employment, home schooling, stalled career prospects, child care, elder care, birth control, medical care, welfare benefits, violence, addiction, divorce, and safety.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Guns

Like many other social, cultural, and public health issues, firearm safety doesn’t and can’t exist in isolation from other developments, such as civil rights, ideological extremism, redistricting, national and household economic health and inequality, and health care accessibility.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: The Environment

The two major presidential candidates, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, have both said they are trying to find a balance between economic prosperity and clean air, water, and land for all—but their approaches are vastly different.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Freedom of Speech

The First Amendment was first for a reason. It exists to keep our government and its agents from destroying the conditions necessary for democratic self-government. A government that does not lead its people toward tolerance and open debate leads them away from democracy.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Safety Net

Prior to COVID-19, 37% of all Hoosiers (nearly 1 million households) were already struggling, either living in poverty or hovering right above it in a category United Way refers to as ALICE—Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed.

VOTE—What’s At Stake: Democracy

Democracies are not Energizer bunnies, running forever like perpetual motion machines. Democracies wind down. They get sloppy . . . And they can die.

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