Tracking Hurricanes

JERRY HERMAN, A.B. '53, drama, famed composer and lyricist for whom UM's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre is named, received a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award during the 2009 ceremony at Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall, for a body of work that includes Tony winners Mame, La Cage aux Folles, and Hello, Dolly! Six of Herman's seven Broadway shows have been nominated for Tony Awards.

DAVID P. DRIMER, ’77, English, is the associate publisher of Forward Jewish weekly newspaper and Web site, which covers international and national news, editorials, sports, as well as and arts and culture. Drimer, who joined the publication in 2005, has created one the few workable business models for the news publishing industry.

With a circulation of 31,000, Forward became a nonprofit organization earlier this year. Under Drimer’s leadership it has grown 43 percent. Advertising revenues have increased by nearly 51 percent, he said.

The newspaper’s website has won numer- ous awards, including a Webby. This year, Forward won 10 Simon Rockower awards, known in the industry as the Jewish Pulitzer Prize for writing, investigation and Web site reporting.

Drimer lives in New York with his wife Donna. They have two daughters, Alexandra, 19, and Olivia, 14.

UM alumnus awarded fellowship and U.S. State Department post

FAMILY AND A&S INSPIRE CAREER IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Kristofer Clark, ’02, political science, was born into a family whose members were accustomed to living abroad, and to dedi- cating their lives to serving their country, through the military. He plans to continue this patriotic tradition, but through a slightly different channel—as a diplomat and policy maker. “My father worked out of the Pentagon, so I was exposed to current events since I was young,” said Clark. “And at the College of Arts & Sciences I had the privilege of having excellent political science professors who also stimulated my interest.”

Recently, Clark, 31, spent more than a year in South Africa work- ing for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an independent federal agency that provides assistance in health care, economic development, and education to other na- tions. “It was an incredible experience assisting in development work for our friends and allies in that country,” Clark said.

Thus he is looking forward to other posts abroad. “Right now, there’s a huge push for American diplomacy,” he said. But the way Clark sees it, diplomacy is always in fashion—and reward- ing to all concerned. Thus “I would like to have a distinguished career making strategic decisions and representing my country.”

He has moved a step closer to his dream by becoming one of the recipients of the 2009 Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship, aimed at talented students in academic programs relevant to international affairs and political and economic analysis. Each year, hundreds apply for the award, but only about 20 students are chosen, said Antoinette Marrero, a communications official at The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the organization which provides funding for the Pickering award.

“I was very excited to receive this fellowship,” said Clark, who is pursuing a master’s degree in international affairs at Columbia University in New York City. The Pickering Fellowship, sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Fellowships Foundation, covers full tuition and living expenses. And no small benefit to Clark is that it also includes assignment to a position in the U.S. State Depart- ment after graduation.

UM medical student wins national poster contest

A&S GRADUATE’S ENTRY URGES INNOVATIVE TREATMENTS FOR YOUNG CANCER PATIENTS

Ian Amber, B.S. ’07, was declared a national winner in the 2009 Medical Student Poster competition sponsored by the American College of Physicians. Amber, who is a member of the Miller School of Medicine’s class of 2010, won for “Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma in 19-Year-Old Male Treated with Interleukin-2,” of which he was lead author. The future physician was one of 40 indi- viduals competing in the Clinical Vignettes category as he presented his research to a panel of judges last April in Philadelphia.

Amber had been on a medical oncology rotation at Jackson Memorial Hospital when a teenage cancer patient came to his atten- tion. As he later stressed in his poster and told the judges, it is important to seek im- munomodulatory therapy in youthful patients with a potentially curable illness, and this teenager at Jackson was one such indi- vidual. “I realized this was a rare case, but I didn’t want to talk solely about the illness but also the treatment and how the illness affects the patient,” said Amber, who is planning to become a diagnostic radiologist.

He knows what it’s like to be a patient with a life-threatening condition, and he was inti- mately familiar with physicians and medical settings prior to enrolling in the Miller School.

Afflicted with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the past, Amber was declared cured in October 2008 after having remained disease- free for five years.

He was working with a physician who is an authority on renal cell carcinomas when the young cancer patient was admitted to Jackson. The kind of therapy Amber was recommend- ing—interleukin-2—isn’t typically administered for renal cell carcinomas, “but the physician and I felt the patient’s age made him a good candidate,” Amber said. “I guess being involved at the patient side myself for so long, I wanted to try to give back, to help win this battle.” Amber noted his patient is doing well.

A graduate of Palmetto High School in Miami, Amber said that studying medicine in South Florida has been a dream of his since he was a boy and that he always considered UM his hometown school. In turn, he says, the College of Arts & Sciences provided him with a solid background for medical school.

“I know it sounds trite to say, but I do like helping people,” said Amber. “It’s sad that some health care providers have lost focus on what it’s like to be the patient. But when you see how sick your patient can get, you should want to fight for a cure.”