The Mason Spirit

2008 was such a crazy year for Rick Vaughn, BSEd Health Education ’79, that he knew it would be December before he could really process it all. Even then it felt as if it had been a dream. After 23 years working in major league baseball (MLB), Vaughn, vice president of communications for the Tampa…

Continue Reading From Last in the League to Field of Dreams

Just as humans reveal a lot about themselves through their behavior, animals do the same. And for animal behaviorists such as Elizabeth Freeman, PhD Environmental Science and Policy ’05, any sneeze, dance, or stomp could be the key to unlocking the mystery behind why animals do what they do. Freeman originally thought her love for…

Continue Reading The Birds and the Bees and the Elephants

From an early age, John Paul (J. P.) Phaup, MBA ’91, was musically inclined. Born in the same town that produced the Beach Boys, he was his school district’s number 1 percussionist for several years running. “I was a little drummer boy,” he says. Fast forward a few decades and Phaup, now managing director, investments…

Continue Reading Sharing the Gift of Music

Year: Senior Major: Psychology Hometown: Arlington, Virginia In the Laboratory: Under Mason’s Undergraduate Apprenticeship Program, Tizoc Perez-Casillas is working with Professor Jane Flinn, the director of the undergraduate neuroscience program. Flinn’s research focuses on the effects of trace metals on age-related macular degeneration, including Perez-Casillas’s project examining the effects of these same trace metals on…

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The latest book by Mason economics professor Russell Roberts is The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity (Princeton University Press, 2008). Told in the form of a novel, it is the story of how prosperity is created and sustained, and the unseen order and harmony that shape people’s lives. This book is…

Continue Reading The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity

Mason chemistry professor Abul Hussam was named an Outstanding American by Choice by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The initiative recognizes the significant achievements of naturalized U.S. citizens. Previous recipients include former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, actor Andy Garcia, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel.

Continue Reading Did You Know…

We’re beginning a new tradition here at the Spirit. With the great access we have to some of the top experts in their respective fields, it made sense to have Mason professors share a bit of their knowledge with our readers. So we’re starting the Top Five, in which we’ll ask a leading authority in…

Continue Reading Top Five: Ways to Shed Those Extra Pounds

On that tragic day in September seven years ago, we all felt a sense of loss. We were scared and vulnerable, full of sympathy and remorse. But some, such as Jim Laychak, BS Accounting ’83 and BS Decision Sciences ’83, experienced an even greater loss. His brother, David, a civilian working for the Army at…

Continue Reading Honoring the Fallen

People tell Rebecca Erbelding, MA History ’06, secrets that they won’t even tell their spouses, their siblings, or their children. As an archivist for the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the Mason doctoral student gets to hear many of the survivors’ stories firsthand. Others she gleans from the diaries, journals, and photographs that arrive…

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“Use your left foot.” Those were the words of a skinny, grinning Englishman who towered over my little four-year-old frame. Below my knees was a miniature soccer ball. Above me was Gordon Bradley. This is my first memory of the Mason coach. My father worked in the university’s Sports Information Department at the time, and…

Continue Reading Coaches We Love: Gordon Bradley