TO HER CRITICS, she was known as “Carrie Nation, the hatchet-wielding temperance advocate,” to quote the 1964 New York Times obituary. To describe her as controversial doesn’t go far enough to capture the seismic shift she created in society. With one book, she struck at the heart of the chemical industry’s sacred cow—pesticides. The book was Silent Spring. Her name was Rachel Carson.
On the year of Carson’s 100th birthday, the entire nation is celebrating her legacy for introducing the lasting topic of the environment to the public conversation. A homegrown Pittsburgh woman, born in Springdale, Pa., to be exact, it’s only fitting that local universities, environmental groups, and industries in the Pittsburgh region formed the Rachel Carson Centennial Celebration Committee to plan events in the region.
For the past year, Michael Capp, PhD, professor of biology, and Louise Sciannameo, vice president of University Communications and Community Relations, represented Carlow University on the Carson Centennial Committee that included Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham University, Duquesne University, University of Pittsburgh, Robert Morris University, UPMC, LaRoche College, United Steelworkers, and the Rachel Carson Homestead Association.
“The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery—not over nature but of ourselves.”
—Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
According to Capp, the committee decided that throughout the year, each committee member institution would hold their own signature event, which would culminate in one main conference— the Rachel Carson Legacy Conference: Sustaining the Web of Life in Modern Society on September 29, 2007, at Carnegie Mellon University.
“We wanted to do something to pay tribute to Rachel Carson, in a way that was also unique to Carlow,” says Capp, who tapped faculty members David Gallaher, associate professor, chemistry; and Jean Schmidt, instructor, biology; to join him in brainstorming and planning the ideal activity.
“We, as faculty, measure our success through the successes of our students. And many of our students have been very successful in the environmental arena.”
“We all agreed that probably one of the best things we could do at Carlow, and for our students, was to celebrate the success of our graduates, to bring them back to Carlow as professionals so that they could share their knowledge and experience in environmental biology, and to give current students an idea of what it’s like after you graduate,” says Capp.
It was in that spirit that Carlow University, in conjunction with the Rachel Carson Homestead Symposium, celebrated Rachel Carson’s legacy with an environmental symposium titled A Celebration of the Environment: Carlow University Alumni Making a Difference.
Capp, Gallaher, and Schmidt selected five Carlow alumni they had mentored and had kept in touch with over the years and invited them to return to Carlow to give presentations on their work in the environment, to share their expertise, and what they are doing now with the Carlow community and the general public.
They were: Rachel Molinaro, BS (’05), a regional clinician at NovoCure spoke on the “Influence of an Abandoned Acid Plant on Soil Microbes”; Aimee Milarski, BS (’06), staff member for the Adam’s County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals presented “Animal Biodiversity: The Work of Conservation”; Alyson Berkshire, MS, (’03, ’04), physical science technician at the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine shared her professional experience in “U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine”; Keri Rebuck, BS (’03), senior environmental scientist at Mackin Engineering spoke about a unique collaboration among her consulting group, a nonprofit organization, and PennDot in “The PA Woodcock Habitat Initiative in State Lands”; and Frank Ammer, PhD, (’97), assistant professor of wildlife biology, Frostburg State University, relayed his experience and research on the effects of mountaintop mining in “Mountaintop Mining in the Eastern U.S.
(Please see below for more in-depth biographies about Carlow alumni.)
The range of topics presented showed just how diverse the study and opportunity within the field of biology is. From examining lab samples to conservation to wildlife preservation to the effects of mountaintop mining, all echoed the concerns Carson had spent her life researching.
Capp notes that these students exemplify the kinds of successes that everyone at Carlow wants to see.
“The students loved coming back and sharing their experience and knowledge. I think they felt celebrated, and they were,” says Capp. “It was amazing to see just how much the students have grown from the first day they set foot at Carlow to how they have matured as professionals in their respective fields.”
Dr. Mary Hines, president of Carlow University, said that the conference was “ . . . particularly special since it brings together both current science students and Carlow alums who are making very significant contributions through their scientific work.”
Through this conference, and others, the impact of Rachel Carson’s courage continues to reverberate. Carson, according to Capp, was hands down one of the great, if not the greatest environmentalists of our time or any time because she brought to the forefront a concern for our environment and our responsibility as stewards to our planet.
“I see her as the inspiration for the first Earth Day in 1972,” says Capp. “And I think celebrating her in this way is very deserved and overdue.”
About the Presenters
Rachel Molinaro graduated from Carlow University in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science degree focusing on biology/ecology and continued at Carlow in the master’s program for secondary education for high school biology and ecology. Currently, she works in research for an Israeli company called NovoCure. As head Pittsburgh regional clinician, Rachel is one of five individuals in the United States conducting a Phase III pilot study to determine if tumor treating fields of electrical current can battle Glioblastoma Multiforme in terminal patients fighting re-occurring brain tumors. Although she has directed her efforts more toward medicinal research, she still works concurrently in the ecology field through volunteer activities.
Aimee Milarski graduated from Carlow University in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in biology. While an undergraduate student, she spent many rewarding hours involved in animal care and training at both the National Aviary and the Pittsburgh Zoo. Milarski spent her first year following graduation from Carlow working at Catoctin Wildlife Preserve, a private facility near Washington, D.C. that is home to a variety of exotic and endangered animals. She is currently a staff member at the Adams County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), a non-profit organization that provides shelter and care for lost, abandoned, and abused animals, as well as providing a variety of other services in such areas as education and prosecution of cruelty offenders.
Alyson Berkshire works as a physical science technician at the Environmental Lead Sample Processor for the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine located on Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. The first student to graduate from Carlow’s 3/2 biology/environmental science program, Alyson holds a Master of Science degree in environmental science and management from Duquesne University. Prior to earning her master’s degree in 2004, she graduated from Carlow with a bachelor’s degree in biology/ecology in 2003.
Keri D. Rebuck is a senior environmental scientist at Mackin Engineering Company in Pittsburgh, Pa. Keri earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at Carlow in 2003, and is currently enrolled part-time as a graduate student at Duquesne University in the master’s program for Environmental Science and Management.
Frank K. Ammer graduated from Carlow University, (then Carlow College), in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. He then earned a Master of Science degree in biology from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in Wildlife and Fisheries Ecology from West Virginia University. Frank is currently an assistant professor of Wildlife Biology at Frostburg State University (FSU), Frostburg, Md., and serves as the coordinator of the undergraduate Wildlife and Fisheries and Interpretive Biology and Natural History Programs. The prevailing theme of Frank’s research program at FSU has been the ecology, conservation, management, and population/conservation genetics of vertebrate populations.
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