Urban Studies Student Forum Bios

Mollie Bodin is a first year Master's of History student from Plymouth, Minnesota. She received a Bachelor's of Arts Degree in History and English from Lawrence University. After studying pirates and privateers in early modern England during undergrad, she is expanding such work by focusing on cross-dressing female pirates and soldiers in early modern Europe.

Caitlin Boyle holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from Brown University and is a doctoral student in the Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures companion initiative in the UWM Architecture school. She is interested in twentieth century American urban history, public history, and retail spaces.

D. Scott Canevit was born in Columbus, Georgia, and has lived in several states in the South during his lifetime. He enlisted into the US Army Reserves in 1984 serving for three years before enlisting in active duty in 1987. During his twelve years of active duty service, he was a military policeman and was stationed in various duty locations such as Texas, the Republic of Turkey, the Republic of Panama, Bosnia, as well as North Carolina, and he performed an array of duties such as police patrol, nuclear weapons custody security, desk sergeant, personal security for VIPs, and squad leader. After leaving the Army as a disabled veteran in 1999, he attended Methodist College in Fayetteville, North Carolina where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in criminal justice studies and sociology in 2001, graduating Summa Cum Laude. He completed his Master's Degree in criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee in 2003. He is currently a doctoral student in the Urban Studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where his research interests are in neighborhood organization and neighborhood change. He was a recipient of the Scott Greer award for graduate research in 2005. Currently, he is a project assistant for the Center for 21st Century Studies where he has worked on the Center�s website as well as developed an archive for the Center�s history for the web. His hobbies include genealogy and baseball.

Molly Collins has worked in the nonprofit sector for fifteen years and is currently pursuing her Master's Degree in Nonprofit Management and Leadership at UW-Milwaukee. Molly currently is the Associate Director of Variety �- The Children's Charity of Wisconsin. Molly volunteers with several area nonprofit organizations and serves on the Board of Directors of the Maryland Avenue Montessori School Fund in order to enrich her childrens' Milwaukee Public Schools experience. She has two children, Dillon (7) and Rose (5).

Katie Grafelman is a first year Masters student in Urban Studies at UWM. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay in Urban and Regional Studies with an emphasis in Urban and Regional Planning. She has interned for two Wisconsin Main Street programs working in the development and creation of public spaces. Katie's research interests have been influenced through participation in service work in the Dominican Republic, Appalachia, and Peru; these interests include community participation, social justice, and cemeteries. Katie currently works as a research associate for a health and human services consulting firm in Milwaukee.

Melissa Herguth is in her final year of the Urban Studies and Nonprofit Management course work as a graduate student here at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. She completed her undergraduate degree at Marquette University in Social Welfare and Justice and Sociology. Melissa has a passion for community development nonprofit organizations and currently works as the Development Director for Habitat for Humanity. Her research interest is affordable housing and is thankful for her Thesis Chair, Judith Kenny who has been an excellent mentor through the research process. Melissa is also a committed to helping improve the city of Milwaukee by making it an inviting place for all to live, work and play.

Tammy L. Hodo is from Milwaukee, WI and is doctoral student in the Urban Studies Program at UWM. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Albany State University and her Master of Public Administration from Columbus State University; both universities are located in Georgia. Tammy's research interests are the sociology of education, equality, and power.

Jodi Kessel Lyon is in her final year of coursework in the Urban Studies and Nonprofit Management Graduate Programs here at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. She received her undergraduate degree in Sociology from UWM in 2005. Jodi's interest in Milwaukee's history began with an Urban Studies class on Milwaukee Neighborhoods as an undergraduate and continues today with a specific interest in the history of Milwaukee's Bronzeville Neighborhood. She would like to thank Amanda Seligman for encouraging her in this area and helping her realize how much she enjoys archival research! Other interests include her thesis work on the study of divorced mothers living in the suburbs.

Sara Khorshidifard is a second year PhD student in Architecture at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at UWM. In August 2007, she came to Milwaukee from Iran where she had finished her Continuous Master in Architecture Engineering, in 2004, and her second Master of Art in Landscape Architecture, in 2006, from Tehran University. In the interdisciplinary PhD program at SARUP, her Area of Specialization is the intersection of Place and Discourse and the multiplicity of meanings in Urban Public Space, including places for recreation, socializing, public assembly, and commemoration. Furthermore, she is doing a Minor in Film Studies which focuses on the History and Theory of Contemporary Iranian Cinema.

Dan Murphy was born in 1980 in Alexandria, Louisiana. He graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a bachelor of arts in mass communication with a focus in print journalism in spring 2005. Dan completed a master of arts in history in summer 2008 at UL Lafayette. He currently is a doctoral candidate in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Urban Studies Program. His research interests include regionalism, central cities, identity and space, and popular culture. After earning his doctorate, he hopes to teach in a history department while continuing his urban research.

Edward jj Olson MS has a diverse background in architecture, regional planning, health and social planning, and geriatrics and gerontology. Mr. Olson has integrated these experiences and is considered an inspirational futurist who lectures nationally and internationally regarding facilitating and managing change and developing strategies and techniques that focus on enhancing the operation of organizations. He emphasizes that organizations should meet the test of a visionary future which addresses the test of propriety, economics, acceptability, and resource availability. Mr. Olson has taught at the University of Illinois, the University of Michigan, and been Adjunct Professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

As President of E jj Olson & Associates, he has synthesized these diverse fields and has provided consulting services since 1988 in the areas of strategic planning and strategic visioning for health and human service systems and public and private organizations. He has developed unique "strategic thinking" methodologies that emphasize interactive planning that builds upon insights of national models while meeting the unique programmatic needs of his clients.

In addition, he has a special expertise in the fields of aging, both in geriatrics and gerontology. He helped establish the Milwaukee County Area Agency on Aging and as its youngest member became the Chairperson of its Commission on Aging for more than thirteen years. In addition, he became actively involved in the evolution of public policy nationally by serving on the boards of the Urban Elderly Coalition, and the American Society on Aging. He was the first vice-president of geriatrics at a teaching medical center in a seven state region. In this capacity, he developed and implemented the $1.5 million Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded Geriatric Hospital Initiatives in Long Term Care Program located at the Geriatrics Institute of Sinai Samaritan Medical Center. This initiative was one of the first academic geriatric teaching programs in the United States and was co-sponsored by the medical center and the University of Wisconsin Medical School � Milwaukee Clinical Campus.

Recent aging related experience include his successful efforts in leading a planning process for the Alliance for Children and Families, an umbrella organization of three-hundred and seventy community agencies, to develop a mentor / mentee initiative among alliance agencies. This project was funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies for $2.6 million over a 5 year period. Mr. Olson has worked with other public and private organizations which include Area Agencies on Aging, medical systems, skilled care facilities, mental health and disability agencies, county government health and human service departments, etc. In this capacity, he has promoted visionary models of older adult care, such as the PersonCentered and Pioneer and Green House models which emphasize older adult independence through innovative health continuums of care. These models maximize the role of the older adult and identify key interventions such as technology, and personal hygiene.

Edward jj Olson, has been involved in health and human service initiatives for more than 30 years. His career can best be defined as an advocate for progressive organizational change. He has participated in a wide variety of forums. Some of these forums include: his role as the factotum of the Spring Conference a national educational "think tank"; teaching; research; policy boards; and for the past 20 years as consultant/futurist who works with organizations to rethink their missions and redirect their resources to better impact change regarding the needs of their constituents and clients.

Edward Olson's recent series of futurist visioning sessions, presented throughout the United States and Canada regarding Design Technology and the Boomers, Societal Transformations in the 21st Century as the Result of the Baby Boomers, and Evolution and Revolution of Long Term Care for Future Generations have been well received and are considered precedent setting in their projections of the dynamics and technologies which will influence the reconfiguration of the continuum of care as it impacts upon older adults.

E jj Olson has worked on a diversity of skilled care facilities in Wisconsin. Some of these include: Luther Manor Strategic Plan, Milwaukee WI; Cedar Campuses Strategic Plan, West Bend, WI.; Market Analysis and Feasibility Study for the Development of Assisted Living on the Pine Valley Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center Campus, Richland County, WI; Badger Prairie Health Care Center, Design Staffing & Market Segmentation Study, Dane County, WI; Clearview Skilled and Rehabilitation Center Market Analysis, Dodge County, WI.

Michele Radi Fontaine is an Urban Studies doctoral student preparing to take her preliminary examination this semester. This is the third time she has presented at the UWM Forum, with her previous papers exploring the history of Mount Sinai Hospital, the first, and to date only Jewish hospital in Wisconsin. She has found research on the history of the spatial decisions made during the creation of the Kenwood campus of UWM, a topic selected by chance for a paper in her last semester of coursework, is an interesting departure from her previous research.

Nichole L. Yunk will receive her Master of Science Degree in Urban Studies at UWM in May, 2009. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Africology and Sociology from UWM. She is a program director for Justice 2000, a non-profit organization that works to expand the opportunities for the safe release and reintegration of criminal offenders in Milwaukee. She also worked for the American Civil Liberties Union in Wisconins and Washington, D.C. She has beenhonored by the Southern Poverty Law Center for her efforts toward tolerance education for young people and is a member of Cambridge "Who's Who."

Qiang Zhou is an international PhD student at Urban Studies Program and a project assistance at the Center for Economic Development at UWM. His current research interest is the impact of globalization on urban and community development in developing countries. Before entering UWM, he completed a master degree of urban planning at Nanjing University and worked as a intern for three years in China.

Seth Zlotocha has a MA in History from the University of Minnesota. He has completed post-Masters coursework in History at UW-Milwaukee, which is where the project presented in this forum originates. Seth currently works as an academic staff member in the Department of Enrollment Services at UWM.

UWM | College of Letters and Science | Undergraduate Admissions | Graduate Admissions

Send your comments concerning the site to usp@uwm.edu
© 2002 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Last Updated: March 30, 2009