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Mason Spirit is published twice a year by the Office of University Development and Alumni Affairs in conjunction with the Office of University Relations.
Profiles
Susan Shields: Just Dance
By Leah Kerkman Fogarty on May 10, 2011
Susan Shields, MFA ’03, may not tell you this, but she’s rather important. After all, she calls Mikhail Baryshnikov by his nickname, Misha, so that should give you an idea of her stature in the world of dance. Now a professor in Mason’s School of Dance, Shields was a well-known performer before setting her sights…
Mark McGettrick: Shooting and Scoring in Big Business
By Jason Jacks on May 10, 2011
In the mid-1970s, Mark McGettrick, BS Business Administration ’80, was living in Laurel, Maryland, when he was recruited to play basketball for Mason. At the time, the team was transitioning from Division II to Division I, and McGettrick, a 6′ 3″ guard with an “okay” game, as he modestly described his playing abilities back then,…
Continue Reading Mark McGettrick: Shooting and Scoring in Big Business
Celebration of Distinction 2011
By Mason Spirit contributor on April 28, 2011
On April 13, the George Mason University Alumni Association recognized its most prestigious alumni at an elegant dinner in the Mason Inn Conference Center and Hotel. During the course of the evening, Mason President Alan G. Merten took a few minutes to address the group about his upcoming retirement in June 2012 and reiterate his…
Patriot Profile: Grant Paulsen
By Jason Jacks on March 10, 2011
Sports radio fans know Grant Paulsen as 106.7 the Fan’s voice at FedEx Field and Redskins Park, but he is also a senior communication major at Mason looking forward to graduation and what looks like will be an exciting career.
Making the Grade
By Colleen Kearney Rich on November 1, 2010
Most people can name the vice president of the United States, but few people (outside of the faculty and staff, of course) could tell you who is second in command to George Mason University president Alan Merten. That position is held by Provost Peter Stearns. It’s time you met him.
Meet Mason’s Biggest Facebook Fan
By Leah Kerkman Fogarty on November 1, 2010
The official George Mason University Facebook page reached 30,000 fans over the summer, and we wanted to show some love. So we launched the Mason’s Biggest Fan contest on Facebook and were blown away by the responses. From decorating basements as Mason man caves to naming not one, but two, sons for his alma mater,…
Jamie Konstas: Emotional Rescue
By Corey Jenkins Schaut, MPA '07 on November 1, 2010
Some little girls dream of being a teacher or a nurse. Some fantasize about becoming president or an astronaut. Jamie (Girolamo) Konstas, BS Integrative Studies ’00, knew she wanted to work for the FBI.
Ten years after graduating from Mason’s New Century College (NCC), Konstas is living her dream. She serves as a critical information link between law enforcement agencies across the country and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), where she is detailed by the FBI’s Crimes against Children Unit.
Early in her career as an intelligence analyst, Konstas recognized that child traffickers seemed to have a network, calling each other from other cities to find out where they could work or areas to avoid.
Debbie Hersman: Safety First
By Colleen Kearney Rich on November 1, 2010
From the window of her L’Enfant Plaza office in Washington, D.C., Mason alumna Debbie Hersman, MS Conflict Analysis and Resolution ’00, can see it all: planes taking off and landing at Reagan National Airport, vehicles on the interstate, boats moving along the Potomac River. It’s American transportation in all its glory, and it all comes…
Patriot Profile: Michael Strobl
By Colleen Kearney Rich on November 1, 2010
Major: PhD in Economics Hometown: Stafford, Virginia Semper Fi: In 2004, Lt. Col. Michael Strobl volunteered to escort home the remains of PFC Chance Phelps, a Marine killed in the Iraq War. Strobl kept a diary throughout the trip, which took him from Dover, Delaware, to Dubois, Wyoming. Those notes would eventually become the basis…
Janine Wedel: Who Is Really in Charge?
By Colleen Kearney Rich on November 1, 2010
Public policy professor Janine Wedel has been a pioneer in applying anthropological insights to topics that are typically the terrain of political scientists and economists. In her new book, Shadow Elite: How the World’s New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market (Basic Books, 2010), she details a new system of power and influence…
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