“These people are my friends and they’re my colleagues and they’re my inspiration,” Flowe told a roomful of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and Harrisonburg residents during a dedication ceremony of the mural on March 27. “I may not know them on a personal level, but every time I see them on the wall of this building, I know that people recognize the work they’ve done.”

That feeling extends beyond just the students at EMU. Dr. Tara Kishbaugh, dean of faculty and student success, said that seeing the mural fills her with joy. “Every time I see it, it makes me happy,” she told the crowd gathered for the ceremony at Suter Science Center 106.

The Inclusivity in Science Mural, completed in summer 2022, celebrates the scholarship and contributions of seven scientists whose identities as women, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), and/or queer individuals have historically been underrepresented in scientific spaces. The mural’s stylized portraits depict chemist Asima Chatterjee, mathematician Gladys West, mathematician Katherine Johnson, arachnologist Lauren Esposito, astrophysicist Nergis Mavalvala, eco-philosopher Pınar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd, and ADM (ret.) Rachel Levine.

“[The mural] names the contributions that have too often gone unrecognized,” said Interim President Rev. Dr. Shannon W. Dycus in her remarks at the dedication ceremony. “And perhaps most importantly, it offers reflection and invitation to those who walk these halls every day, especially to students who may be asking quietly or aloud, ‘Is there a place for me in this field?’” 

“Together, these figures and all of those represented remind us that excellence in science has never been limited to a single identity, even if recognition has been,” Dycus added. “And we’re affirming something today about EMU itself: that we are a place that’s willing to name gaps and then do the work to address them, and that we believe representation is not symbolic alone—it is formative.”

Interim President Rev. Dr. Shannon W. Dycus presents her remarks at a dedication ceremony for the Inclusivity in Science Mural.

Dr. Rachel Levine (left) and Pınar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd (right) pose next to their portraits on the mural.

Work on the mural began in spring 2022 and was funded by an Inclusive Excellence Grant made possible by the generous support of Jose Koshy ’76 and Jean Koshy-Hertzler ’79. Learn more about the process behind the project in our article from last month. Veronica Horst ’23, Asha Landes Beck ’22, Grace Harder ’23, Molly Piwonka ’23, Afton Rhodes-Lehman ’24, and Jake Myers ’22 are listed as co-leaders for various stages of the project

A dedication ceremony on March 27 honored the scientists represented on the mural, the artists who brought it to life, and “every person in the arts and sciences who has had to push a little harder against systems that were not built with them in mind,” said event organizer Dawn Neil, coordinator for the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.  

“This mural is both a celebration and a call to continue the work of building a truly inclusive community,” she said. “When more people belong in science, science belongs to all of us.”

The ceremony included appearances by two special guests whose portraits are on the mural. Sinopoulos-Lloyd, who participated earlier that day in the second annual Mornings with the Mayor Convocation, gave a talk and contributed to a panel conversation. Levine, the former U.S. assistant secretary for health, chatted with EMU News and also attended the event. Both Sinopoulos-Lloyd and Levine signed their names on their portraits as part of the dedication.

Pınar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd gives a talk during the mural dedication ceremony at the Suter Science Center on March 27.

Dr. Rachel Levine (left) and Pınar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd (right) sign their portraits on the mural.

Sinopoulos-Lloyd is an Indigiqueer wildlife tracker, writer, and guide whose work bridges Indigenous ecological knowledge, field-based science, multispecies studies, and poetic inquiry. 

In their talk, they recited poetry, shared photos of wildlife tracks—including a rattlesnake, puma, and toad—recounted their experiences following an elk herd, and discussed how their work connects science, art, and sustainability. They also spoke about the importance of representation. 

“This mural we’re honoring today is not just artwork,” Sinopoulos-Lloyd said. “It’s also a constellation. It represents scientists whose work has expanded what is possible, not only through curiosity, but through devotion, imagination, and care.”

Third-year biochemistry major Dante Flowe shares their connection to the mural during the dedication ceremony at Suter Science Center 106 on March 27.

Afton Rhodes-Lehman ’24, who helped design and paint the mural, speaks during a panel conversation (left). Veronica Horst ’23 reflects on the mural (right) while Pınar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd looks on.

A panel conversation following the talk included several alumni who helped bring the mural from concept to creation. Landes Beck, Horst, Piwonka, and Rhodes-Lehman spoke about their roles in the project, the intertwined relationship of art and science, the importance of representation, and their reflections on what the mural means to them. Kishbaugh and Sinopoulos-Lloyd also joined the panel, along with Flowe, who served as a voice for current students. Senior Madelynn Hamm moderated the discussion.

Horst said they hope the mural continues to honor those who haven’t been recognized for their contributions. “One of the names on the mural that people are probably most familiar with is Katherine Johnson’s, because of her story being told through the book and film Hidden Figures,” Horst said. “I think that made us realize how much we don’t know about how women of color and people from minority identities were involved in a lot of influential work. We don’t get to hear about it because it was overshadowed.”

The program included a message from Jenny Burden, executive director of the Arts Council of the Valley, on the role that public art plays in shaping a healthy, thriving, and inclusive community. It also included remarks from Mavalvala, who is depicted on the mural but was unable to attend the ceremony. 

“I am honored to be included with so many wonderful luminaries,” Neil said, reading a statement from the astrophysicist. “Inclusivity in the sciences is critical, and I’m proud that EMU continues to strive toward this goal. Ensuring that people feel a sense of belonging strengthens our educational communities and strengthens science itself.”

Watch a video recording of the ceremony below!

Nearly four years after its final brushstroke was applied, the Inclusivity in Science Mural inside the Suter Science Center will get its long-awaited dedication ceremony on Friday, March 27.

The ceremony will begin at 4 p.m. in SSC 106 with a 30-minute talk led by Pinar Ateş Sinopoulos-Lloyd, one of the seven people featured on the mural. Sinopoulos-Lloyd (they/them) is an Indigenous eco-philosopher, artist, and wildlife tracker, and will speak about the way their work connects science and art with sustainability.

Following the talk, Nicole Litwiller ’19, MACT ’20 will host a panel conversation with Sinopoulos-Lloyd, mural artist and alumna Veronica Horst ’23, a current EMU science student, and Tara Kishbaugh, dean of faculty and student success. The program will also include reflections from Interim President Rev. Dr. Shannon W. Dycus and Jenny Burden, executive director of the Arts Council of the Valley.

A formal dedication of the mural will proceed shortly after 5 p.m., with Sinopoulos-Lloyd signing their portrait. The event is open to the public and will include light refreshments.

About the mural

During the spring of 2022, students involved in EMU’s Art Club and the Earthkeepers group wanted to make the Suter Science Center more welcoming and reflective of who contributes to the sciences, said Dawn Neil, coordinator for the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

“They noticed two things: the space felt visually sterile, and the sciences have historically centered white male voices while overlooking women, scientists of color, and queer scientists,” she said. “They wanted to highlight those hidden figures.”

Work on the mural, funded by an Inclusive Excellence Grant made possible by the generous support of Jose Koshy ’76 and Jean Koshy-Hertzler ’79, began that semester. EMU students Veronica Horst ’23, Asha Beck ’22, Grace Harder ’23, Molly Piwonka ’23, Afton Rhodes-Lehman ’24, and Jake Myers ’22 served as co-leaders at various stages of the project.

“STEM is a field in which, historically, gaining recognition and representation has been challenging for non-white, non-male, and non-heteronormative cisgender individuals,” reads an artist statement for the project. “This mural is intended to be a joyful statement of representation, emphasizing that we have, are, and will continue to make a significant impact on the world.”

“We want to recognize and celebrate these individuals and their contributions to the academic world,” the statement continues. “Our hope is that women, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), and LGBTQIA+ individuals at EMU will experience a positive impact through increased awareness of successful individuals like themselves in STEM.”

The project leaders distributed a campus-wide survey to students, faculty, and staff asking whom they would like to see depicted on the mural and then took a vote to determine who those seven figures would be.

The mural features seven professionals who have made and/or are making an impact in STEM-related fields and are queer and/or BIPOC women. In addition to Sinopoulos-Lloyd, the portraits depict chemist Asima Chatterjee, mathematician Gladys West, mathematician Katherine Johnson, arachnologist Lauren Esposito, astrophysicist Nergis Mavalvala, and admiral Rachel Levine.

For bios of each of these professionals, scroll to the bottom of this article.

Students from the Visual and Communication Arts (VACA) department designed and painted the mural. Although the project was completed during the summer of 2022, this is the first time it’s officially been dedicated, said Neil.

With sustainability serving as the university theme for the 2025-26 academic year, it seemed like the perfect time and Sinopoulos-Lloyd the ideal guest to help make it happen.

“Their work challenges the idea of what science is,” said Neil. “They’re exploring how the environment connects with things visually, artistically, and also scientifically. It’s a different side of science, one rooted in global and community contexts rather than a strictly data-driven one.”

“They would fit in perfectly as a student here,” she added. “What’s exciting is that their values really align with ours.”

About the speaker

Sinopoulos-Lloyd is an artist and scientist known for their powerful work at the intersection of sustainability, science, and art. They are the co-founder of Queer Nature, an interdisciplinary project focused on ecology, identity, and decolonization. Their work has been featured in The Guardian and The New York Times and archived by the Library of Congress. They lecture nationally at institutions including Stanford University, Colorado College, and the Guggenheim Museum.

In 2020, they were honored with the Audubon National Society’s National Environmental Champion award, as well as the R.I.S.E. Indigenous 2020 Art & Poetry Fellowship.

For more information, visit their website at . 

Sinopoulos-Lloyd will participate in several events throughout the day on Friday, March 27. In addition to the mural dedication, they will serve as a panelist at the second annual Mornings with the Mayor, a special edition of Convocation hosted by Harrisonburg Mayor Deanna Reed, director of alumni engagement and community connections, at 10:15 a.m. in the University Commons Student Union. 

They will also meet with students, faculty, and staff for a lunchtime discussion in the West Dining Room of Northlawn Dining Hall at noon.

Sinopoulos-Lloyd is one of seven people featured on the Inclusivity in Science Mural, located on the second floor of the Suter Science Center south of SSC 106 (Swartzendruber Hall). Biographies of each of the people featured on the mural are included below.

An evening of powerful poetry performed by jessica Care moore and Brad Walrond will kick off EMU’s Writers Read Author series this month.

Verses & Vibes, an event featuring the pair of poets, authors and recording artists, will begin at 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 23, at the Common Grounds space in EMU’s University Commons. The event is free to attend and open to the public.

Following their poetry performances, moore and Walrond will lead a Q&A session and participate in a book signing (copies of their books will be available to purchase).

(who stylizes her first and last names in lowercase) is an internationally renowned poet, playwright, performance artist and producer. She is the founder of book publishing company , founder and producer of , and founder of The Moore Art House, a nonprofit dedicated to improving literacy in Detroit.

In April she was the poet laureate of Detroit. She is the third poet laureate to serve the city since 1981.

moore has performed on stages all over the world, including the Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the London Institute for Contemporary Arts. She, along with Walrond, will perform at the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University this month.

She is the author of The Words Don’t Fit in My Mouth, The Alphabet Verses the Ghetto, and Sunlight Through Bullet Holes. The poems in her latest collection, We Want Our Bodies Back, speak to “Black women’s creative and intellectual power, and express the pain, sadness, and anger of those who suffer constant scrutiny because of their gender and race” (, 2020).

moore is a two-time Knight Arts recipient, 2018 Joyce Award winner, 2016 Kresge Artist Fellow, 2013 Alain Locke Award recipient, and the 2015 NAACP Great Expectations Award recipient.

is a poet, author, conceptual/performance artist, and one of the foremost writers and performers of the 1990s Black Arts Movement centered in New York City. His poems have been published in The Atlantic, African Voices Magazine, Moko Magazine, ArtsEverywhere, Eleven Eleven, and Wordpeace. His latest collection of poems, Every Where Alien, “traces blackness, queerness, and desire through the legacy of 1990s and early 2000s New York City underground art movements, illuminating how their roots and undertold histories inspire today’s culture” (, 2024).

Copies of moore’s and Walrond’s are available to check out at EMU’s Sadie Hartzler Library.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion partnered with Writers Read, the Office of Student Life, and the Center for Interfaith Engagement to bring this event to life. 

Dawn Neil, coordinator for the Office of DEI, said she had seen moore perform her poetry at the White Privilege Conference in Tulsa this past April.

“Listening to her, the raw power and emotion in her voice gave me chills,” Neil said. “Bringing her here feels essential. Her message needs to be heard, and I believe it’s one that our students will deeply connect with.”

In it, the 14-year-old girl from Harleysville, Pennsylvania, asked whether her writing project would ever be complete: “Is H.O.T.P.S. finished yet?”

Now, Mellinger, 23, an EMU senior a couple months away from earning her nursing degree, can finally answer that question with a resounding “Yes.” Her debut novel, Heartache on the Play Stage (HOTPS), was published on Jan. 23 and is available to purchase at online booksellers. 

“I promised my 14-year-old self that I would get it published one day,” Mellinger said. “I’ve been working on it for eight to nine years, and I promised myself it was going to be worthwhile.”

The 486-page book is a humorous coming-of-age tale that follows Katie, a 17-year-old who’s among the top of her high school class and appears to have it all. She has stellar grades, impressive extracurriculars, and a meticulously planned future. But, “not everything is what it seems,” reads a description on the back cover.

The title of the novel refers to a breakup between Katie and her boyfriend Johnny on stage as they’re putting on one big play meant to reenact the lives of the students within the high school. Within two weeks of the breakup, Johnny starts dating someone else and, Mellinger said, “that completely crushes her.” 

“One thing I like is that she recovers because she wants to get better,” Mellinger said. “Not because Johnny finally takes her back or someone tells her to stop. She recovers for herself.”

The novel is published by Archway Publishing, which specializes in working with self-published authors. Heartache on the Play Stage is available to purchase on the publisher’s website and on and .

Order her novel .

A copy of the book is also available to at the Sadie Hartzler Library at EMU.

Work on the novel began in 2016, when Mellinger was in middle school, and started as her just writing for fun.

“I would write little notes in my phone,” she recalled. “I carried around a notebook everywhere and would just write down ideas, write down everything that came to me.”

Those ideas turned into stories about Katie and her circle of friends as they navigated high school. Mellinger, who cited The Outsiders as an influence, would stay up late and “write the night away” whenever inspiration struck. Because such a large part of her writing came from when she was in high school herself, the characters and their dialogue, along with their worries and their dreams, all feel authentic and true to life. 

The characters bear some similarities to the author. Like Mellinger, Katie has always wanted to become a nurse. And, similar to what Mellinger did before coming to EMU, Katie wants to take a gap year after high school to work as an EMT.

“It’s a work of fiction, but there are parts of me in all the characters,” Mellinger said. 

She finished writing the story in January 2021, and then “editing took forever.”

Mellinger said she’s been reading Heartache on the Play Stage to her boyfriend over the phone during their nightly calls together. She’s also been reading it to her mom, who’s always keen to hear another chapter. 

“She thinks it’s absolutely hilarious,” Mellinger said. “She laughs at everything — even the things I don’t think are funny.”

Another one of her biggest fans is right on campus.

Dawn Neil, coordinator for the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and a good friend of Mellinger, started reading it as soon as she could get her hands on a copy earlier this week. She playfully bragged about having the first autographed copy of the novel. 

“I might have to buy a second copy so I don’t crack the spine on this one,” she said. 

So, what are the future plans for the nursing novelist?

Mellinger said she has two projects in the works, including a sequel, but those have been put on hold as she completes her coursework. She also plans to throw a big party to celebrate the novel after graduation. 

“Horseradish looks just like mayonnaise, so a label is good because it helps you differentiate between them,” Cooper told a crowd at Common Grounds Coffeehouse on Tuesday night. 

“There can be a great place for labels or it can be incredibly limiting,” she added. “A label you use today may not apply tomorrow, or three years from now, or graduate school or as you start a family.” 

Cooper, a Black transgender woman who serves as director of community engagement for the , spoke at EMU’s LGBTQ+ History Month keynote. As a member of the , she is the second-highest ranking transgender woman in the U.S. government. 

The health and equity advocate told the gathering of 135 people about the history of the transgender community. She discussed key definitions of gender and transgender identity and reviewed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation being introduced.

Cooper said it was especially important for her to provide a historic context for transgender identity, as she presented slides of some historical figures who would have identified as transgender.

“Trans is not new,” she said. “It just might be new to some of you.”

The event not only attracted students from EMU but also from other colleges and universities throughout the region. Following her presentation, Cooper engaged in a fireside chat with nine EMU students who shared their experiences of living with queer or transgender identities. 

One of those students, Sarah Peak, a junior, spoke about how she had fought a losing battle trying to turn the Queer Student Alliance at her high school into a school-sanctioned club. 

“Every single time we applied for it, we were denied,” she said. “That just goes to show you that even though you’re … allowing students to voice themselves, we’re still severely restricted in schools in what we can do and what we can say.”

Many of the students participating in the small-group discussion spoke positively about how EMU embraced who they are. 

Riley Quezada, a senior on the leadership team for the EMU Queer Student Alliance, said they did not come out until their first year on campus. But once they did and expressed their preferred pronouns, they felt like a different person.

“I wasn’t someone who was closed-off and unapproachable,” Quezada said. “I am now more approachable and I am now more of myself.”

Dawn Neil, coordinator for the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, celebrated the event’s success.

“The support that we got from the community, from our students, from faculty and staff that were here, it was very inspiring,” she said. 

Neil reached out to Cooper about a year ago and explained how EMU supported its students. Hearing about that support convinced her to speak, Neil said.

“Tori was impressed with how students’ voices are listened to on campus and with what was going on with the transition from Safe Space to QSA,” Neil said.

The EMU QSA, recently renamed from Safe Space, is a group for empowering queer voices and LGBTQ+ activism on campus. This is the second time the office of DEI and QSA has hosted a keynote speaker in recognition of October as LGBTQ+ History Month. 

“This is our first big event with the new name and new leadership, but with the same spirit,” Quezada said.