Lincoln (Neb.) - Oct. 21, 1999 - Five distinguished University of Nebraska-Lincoln alumni will return to campus Nov. 3-5 for Masters Week, an annual event that honors successful NU graduates. This year's Masters are U.S. Rep. Doug Bereuter (R- Neb.), Maj. Gen. Claude Bolton Jr., Norma Cantu, Jeanette Hasse and Abbas Mohaddes.
Masters Week was founded in 1964 by Chancellor Clifford Hardin. The program brings successful alumni into contact with students through class visitations, campus tours and meetings with clubs and organizations. Masters are nominated by NU faculty and selected by a committee appointed by the chancellor. Masters Week is sponsored by the chancellor's office, the Student Alumni Association, Innocents Society and the Black Masque Chapter of Mortar Board.
After four years in the Nebraska Legislature, Bereuter was elected to Congress in 1978 from Nebraska's 1st District and has been re-elected 10 times. He was director of the Nebraska State Office of Planning and Programming from 1968-1970 and a division chief in the state Department of Economic Development from 1967- 1968 under Gov. Norbert Tiemann. He brings broad experience to his current position as a businessman, veteran, college educator and urban planner. He has authored significant legislation on trade, water development, agriculture, health, business, housing, American Indian and international hunger and child welfare. He has taken an active role in promoting American exports, especially agricultural exports. A 1986 publication listed Bereuter as one of 75 "Trade Warriors" in the Congress - members whose expertise and influence on trade policy place them in leadership positions. Originally from Utica, he earned a bachelor's degree in geography at NU (1961) and master's degrees in city planning (1963) and public administration (1973) at Harvard University.
Gen. Bolton is program executive officer for fighter and bomber programs, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisitions at U.S. Air Force headquarters in Washington, D.C. He is responsible for all acquisition activities on the F-22, F-15, F-16, F-117, B-1 and B-2 programs, the Common Missile Warning System and the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System programs. He graduated from NU in 1969 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and received his commission through NU's Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program, and was honored as a distinguished graduate. Bolton went on to graduate from Squadron Officer School, earned a master's degree in management from Troy State University, corresponded through Air Command and Staff College, and earned a master's degree in national security and strategic studies at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. The South Sioux City native is a command pilot with more than 2,700 flying hours in more than 30 different aircraft. During the Vietnam War, he flew 232 combat missions. Bolton said he believes education serves as a key factor to success and gives great credit to his parents, his family, the U.S. Air Force, and to NU.
Cantu is a professor of English in the department of language, literature and arts at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas, where she has been from 1980 to 1993 and from 1995 to present. From 1993 to 1995, she was senior arts specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts, Folk and Traditional Arts Program in Washington, D.C. She recently returned to her duties at Texas A&M after a leave to be acting director of the Center for Chicano Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Cantu earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Texas A&I University in Laredo and Kingsville and earned her Ph.D. in English at Nebraska (1982). In 1997, she was recognized by the NU College of Arts and Sciences with an Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award. Cantu's scholarly interests and expertise include folklore, Chicano literature, borderland studies, literary criticism, women's studies, and 20th century American literature. Her most recent work, forthcoming from the Texas A & M University Press, is a study of the Matachines de la Santa Cruz, a religious dance tradition in Laredo. Her novel, "Canicula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera" received the Premio Aztlan prize in 1996. She is completing a second novel, "Hair Matters."
Hasse is transplant nutrition specialist at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. The Gordon native created the first full-time liver transplant dietitian position in the United States in 1987 and is co-editing a book due out in 1999 that will be the definitive manual on nutrition for adult and pediatric transplantation. In addition to the more than 90 professional presentations she has given at the local, state and national levels, Hasse teaches classes for dietetic interns, frequently lectures to universities and has written more than 40 journal articles, book chapters, books, and magazines. Since 1985, she has worked with more than 1,400 liver transplant recipients and 500 recipients of other organs. She graduated with high distinction from NU in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in human nutrition and food service management. In 1984, she interned at Baylor University Medical Center and one year later returned to academics to earn a master's degree in nutrition while continuing to work full-time. In 1990, Hasse again returned to Texas Woman's University to earn her doctorate degree in nutrition. Throughout Hasse's career and research, her goal has been to make transplant clinicians aware of the important role nutrition plays in the recovery and well-being of transplant patients.
Mohaddes is president and CEO of Meyer, Mohaddes Associates
Inc., a California consulting engineering firm specializing in
intelligent transportation systems. He co-founded the company in
1991, expanding it to include seven offices in California, Nevada
and Idaho. He is also vice-president of Odetics ITS, Meyer,
Mohaddes' parent company. Mohaddes is a nationally recognized
authority in traffic control and intelligent transportation
systems and has many notable accomplishments that include the
planning and design of several light-rail transit projects in
California, Texas and Illinois. One of the founders of
intelligent transportation systems, he developed the Santa Monica
Smart Corridor, one of the first major intelligent transportation
systems programs in the United States. Mohaddes has published
more than 20 articles in various professional journals and has
made more than 40 presentations to transportation organizations
in the United States and abroad. He co-authored the Traffic
Control Handbook, published in 1995. Originally from Iran,
Mohaddes earned bachelor's (1979) and master's degrees (1982) in
civil engineering at NU.
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