Kathy Keeler ‘65 had an illustrious career as a Professor of the School of Life Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and since has maintained her passion as a plant expert in a variety of pursuits.  Her specialties range from ant-plant interactions to grass genetics to studies of prairie plants.  In the 1980’s she was at the forefront in contributing to the analysis of genetically-engineered organisms.  Kathy wrote analytical pieces and used summaries in the literature to bring existing information to bear on the emerging field.   At that time, she also pioneered a flow cytometry technique that has now become the standard. Flow cytometry is the staining of a cell for a particular compound and passing individual cells in front of a laser that measured the stained material.  In the classroom, Kathy taught everything from general biology to advanced evolution for new graduate students, with the courses centering around ecology and evolution. Her career as a professor spanned over 30 years and for the first decade she was the only woman professor in her department of over thirty individuals.  In 2013 she was frustrated that the great stories of plants she saw traveling, of frangipani, bougainvillea, mountain ash (a giant eucalyptus), weren’t easy to find. The result was Kathy beginning the blog, A Wandering Botanist. It allows her to write about plants as entertainment—odd biology, curious folklore, largely-forgotten stories of their role in history. This has led to speaking in Colorado and sometimes on tours, and books that relate those stories on paper.  Since her retirement as a professor, she still continues to write and has recently published three books: Curious Stories of Familiar Garden Plants, Curious Stories of Plants from Around the World and NoCo Notables: 15 Northern Colorado Plants Worth Knowing based mainly on the blog.

The norm is neither for a Chagrin student to play in a punk band nor ascend to be an Oscar nominated director, but Dave Mullins has done both and has had success throughout his career.  Leaving Chagrin and his punk rock band Roygbiv, Dave set off to obtain a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design. He would jump right in as an animator at such studios as Walt Disney Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and MGM.  He would make his way over to Pixar and work on such films as Monsters Incorporated, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Inside Out, Coco, Cars 3, Mater and the Ghostlight, Brave, and Finding Nemo. He worked his way up to Directing Animator for the film Up and Animation Supervisor for Cars 2, The Good Dinosaur, and Incredibles 2.  The Pixar team has won numerous awards on these films and Dave would see his greatest individual success as the writer and director of the 2018 Oscar Nominated Short Film LOU.  In addition, Dave spends a lot of time teaching animation and filmmaking at the California Institute of the Arts, Academy of Art San Francisco, Animation Mentor and Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Games and Animation to name a few.