Atir: “If we fail to use our capacity for learning from others to its full extent, we’re shortchanging ourselves of the full human experience.” Paul L. Newby II

Between working from home, having groceries delivered, and banking online, it’s increasingly possible to conduct life without engaging face-to-face with another human being. The average person can mostly avoid conversation with strangers.

But it turns out that not talking to strangers can lead to poorer decision-making, less creativity, and diminished well-being, according to a study coauthored by Stav Atir, assistant professor of management at the Wisconsin School of Business. The study also suggests that we underestimate the potential for learning from those we casually interact with.

“Failing to accurately anticipate how much someone could teach you is consequential,” says Atir.

The study randomly paired strangers for a 10-minute conversation and compared how much they expected to learn before the conversation with how much they reported learning after the conversation. Participants consistently learned more than they expected, including understanding another’s perspective and acquiring advice or instruction on various topics.

Talking with others communicates norms, creates shared understanding, and conveys morality, among other benefits. “If we fail to use our capacity for learning from others to its full extent,” says Atir, “we’re short-changing ourselves of the full human experience.”

The debut of a new LVHM menswear store in Miami became a tribute to Abloh, whose Spring–Summer 2022 collection dominated the runway. AP Photo/Marta Lavandier

On November 28, 2021, the world lost one of its boldest and most innovative creative minds, and the UW–Madison alumni community lost a fellow member: Virgil Abloh ’03 died of cancer at age 41.

Abloh had a keen eye for the cutting edge unmatched by his contemporaries. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Abloh leaves behind the legacy of a Renaissance man who reimagined and revolutionized the spaces he entered with a keen eye for the cutting edge that was unmatched by his contemporaries. While he was best known for his work as the first Black artistic director of menswear at French fashion house Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) and creative director for rapper Kanye West, Abloh’s influence spanned industries from interior design to house music.

To say that Abloh’s work was well loved would be an understatement: in the hours that followed the news of his passing, he was mourned and memorialized online by a host of A-list musicians, models, athletes, actors, and creatives, including model Hailey Bieber (whose custom wedding dress Abloh designed) and youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman (who once wore an Abloh design inspired by his grandmother).

What was supposed to be the debut of a new LVHM menswear store in Miami (pictured above, including a sculpture garden imagined by Abloh) on November 30 became a tribute to the late designer, whose Spring–Summer 2022 collection dominated the runway. The show was accompanied by a video titled Virgil Was Here, which paid homage to a life and career cut short — though, for Abloh, the work was an ever-evolving endeavor that would never truly be done.

The show concluded with a recording of his voice: “Life is so short that you can’t waste even a day subscribing to what someone thinks you can do, versus knowing what you can do.”

Ranavat is bottling regal indulgence and sharing it with people around the world. Grey and Elle

Michelle Ranavat ’03 nurtured her creativity through her industrial engineering coursework at UW–Madison. But it was during a trip to India that she first tapped into her inner royal.

While perusing palaces, Ranavat marveled at the ornate detail, meticulous craftsmanship, and luxurious atmosphere created by some of the country’s early kings and queens. She was transported to a time in which eternal beauty was a lifelong pursuit, and one that these royals undertook with the help of Ayurveda — an ancient medicinal practice — and ingredients readily available in nature.

Ranavat was quick to realize that it didn’t take a palatial estate to evoke this essence of luxury. Armed with the cultural knowledge of Indian beauty practices she grew up with, she is bottling regal indulgence and sharing it with people around the world through RANAVAT, a skin- and hair-care line rooted in Ayurvedic Indian beauty rituals.

“The beauty industry pumps out thousands of new products every single year,” Ranavat says. “When I created the line, I didn’t want it to just be another product, another clean beauty line, even another Ayurvedic line. I really wanted to have something that was connected to a deeper meaning.”

Luckily, she doesn’t have to look far to find it: Ranavat ensures that her brand transcends simple self-care by highlighting the significance of products like the Flawless Veil Resurfacing Saffron Masque, which contains Ayurvedic elements like saffron and turmeric, or the Fortifying Hair Serum, which takes inspiration from the Indian practice of hair-oiling.

“We’re not just trying to sell a skin-care treatment to give you better skin,” Ranavat says. “We do that, but we also want to share the heritage and the tradition behind it.”

Ranavat’s current work may seem remote from her days as an industrial engineering student, but for her, the only thing more natural than the products she develops is the path that led from factory field trips in Wisconsin to a beauty empire in Los Angeles. Her unique blend of STEM and self-care is well suited to turning time-tested traditions into the new-age rituals of the modern, everyday royal.

“Royalty is a state of mind,” Ranavat says. “Anyone can be royal, and we are shattering the idea that it’s only meant for certain people … because I think the moment that we say we’re worthy of it is when it becomes real.”

In a more detailed sense, State Street has undergone a lot of change, and this is true whether you graduated in 1959 or 2019. The road from campus to the capitol has always seen businesses flip with a speed that would astound the crepe maker at Ovens of Brittany. But the pandemic made life even harder on State Street’s mix of bars, restaurants, and retailers. According to records kept by Downtown Madison, Inc., State Street lost nearly 40 businesses in 2020 and 2021, out of 160 storefronts. But some establishments have maintained a steady presence. The seven listed at left have lasted more than half a century, at the same address, with the same name.

Stoffers, Michael Fishman, and Jordan Fishman (left to right) started Pure Cycles with a mission to “get more people on bikes.” Courtesy of Pure Cycles

“Riding a bicycle is like being a kid again,” says Michael Fishman ’11, who has pedaled his way straight from UW–Madison to cofounding a national company called Pure Cycles.

As a student, Fishman wondered why more UW students didn’t ride bicycles, given the bike-friendly qualities of Madison. Then he realized there seemed to be just two kinds of bikes: cheap clunkers from chain stores and high-enders from bike shops, with nothing in between.

Enter Fishman and some friends since kindergarten: Austin Stoffers ’11 and Zach Schau ’09 and his brother, Jordan. While still seniors, Fishman and Stoffers used their savings to order 165 bikes and sold most of them over winter break in Los Angeles, their hometown. A second order followed quickly, with Fishman using proceeds from a Burrill entrepreneurial award he won from the Wisconsin School of Business.

But these weren’t just any two-wheelers; they hit the market sweet spot between beaters and racers (current price range is $350 to $1,500). “We wanted to build bikes that were unique and stylish for an affordable price,” Fishman says. They worked with manufacturers to find basic components with good quality and kept their focus on the bikes’ looks.

“We came out with 20 colors, most of them modeled after college sports teams,” Fishman adds. After graduation, they went back to LA, found a warehouse, and started their company with a mission to “get more people on bikes.” The “pure” in its name comes from a synonym Fishman and his friends used for “cool.”

They’ve been so successful, in fact, that the company was acquired in 2020 by JBI.BIKE, a bicycle distributorship. Fishman and Jordan Schau continue as brand managers of Pure Cycles.

You may have to wait a bit for a Pure Cycles bike. The entire industry is backed up because of pandemic-fueled demand and raw material shortages. But by the end of this year, you should see Pure Cycles in independent bike stores and REIs around the country.

Fishman not only sells bikes; he sells bicycling. He’s board chair of the LA County Bicycle Coalition, which works to make cycling safer through initiatives like community planning and distributing bike lights.

More than anything, says Fishman, “I love the freedom of a bike. You’re exploring and soaking up your surroundings like you can’t in a car.” It’s that feeling you get from riding something that’s really — to use a Fishman expression — pure.

Oleson’s O&H bakery takes three days to handcraft a 36-layer kringle worthy of grandma’s holiday table. Paul L. Newby II

Peter Olesen ’09 is part of the fourth generation leading O&H Danish Bakery, beloved in Racine, Wisconsin, and beyond for its scratch-made kringle pastries. As vice president of strategic development, Olesen contributes his finance and real-estate background to the family business, where his parents worked alongside two brothers and aunts and uncles.

To Olesen, family also means fellow Badgers. His brother-in-law, Matt Horton ’05, is O&H’s vice president of marketing. Olesen’s wife, Kimberly Olesen ’08, MS’10, is a dentist: “We have this perfect synergy — I encourage sweets, and she takes care of them,” he says.

Olesen recalls that a course he took through the Wisconsin Family Business Center helped prepare him for working with family members day in and day out.

“The focus was helping companies get through these relationship issues that inevitably pop up,” he says. “I lived it growing up. The dinner-table talk is the bakery talk. You have to then also be able to turn it off and just be family.”

No wonder he’s delightfully practiced at explaining the art of kringle. It takes three days to handcraft a 36-layer, flaky pastry worthy of grandma’s holiday table. When it comes to fillings, Olesen is a traditionalist (please pass the almond kringle his way), but he’s also fond of Wisconsin Kringle, a cherry, cranberry, and cream-cheese flavor created in 2013 when kringle was named Wisconsin’s official state pastry. A brandy old-fashioned kringle was a hot seller, he says, and a collaboration with Highland Park Whiskey is launching this summer.

Each day, O&H bakes upward of 6,000 kringles, which are often purchased for gifts or special-occasion treats. But Olesen says that in 2020, when the pandemic led to canceled holiday gatherings and forced isolation for so many households, kringle took on new meaning.

“It became that simple slice of happiness in an otherwise crazy, scary, we-don’t-know-what’s-going-on world,” he says.

In September, O&H was honored with a Wisconsin 2020 Family-Owned Business of the Year Award. And Olesen rang in the New Year as president of a new family business, a shipping and fulfillment center that’s set to grow O&H’s biggest demand: kringle by mail.

The center will keep O&H kringles and cakes shipping on time, especially during peak holiday seasons, he says. The operation will also expand into fulfillment for other local and regional e-commerce companies.

“I get very excited making investments in the business when you know that your goal is really long-term success,” Olesen says. “We’re 72 years into the O&H business. I’d like to think there’s easily another 72 years ahead of us.”

For all their computer wizardry, the undergrads who created Spacebar got the word out through low-tech means. Courtesy of Spacebar

You’re a UW–Madison student who can’t go to clubs or parties during the pandemic. Is there any option besides staying home alone?

Now there is: you can stay home and join a virtual meetup. A group of enterprising UW students has created a free app called Spacebar, which brings the party to you through an ingenious concept.

At a set time, called “happy hour,” students can hop on Spacebar alone or with a friend. The app randomly connects them with one or two others from the UW campus for a short video call. The participants can press a button to continue talking or move on to another random conversation.

“It’s kind of like speed dating,” says cofounder Matthew Kruepke x’22, “but just to make friends.”

A 10-person team of undergraduates launched Spacebar during the 2021 spring semester after an intense period of brainstorming and development. For all their computer wizardry, they got the word out through low-tech means, including chalked messages on campus sidewalks.

The strong response suggests that their new product has touched a nerve.

“We just want to help students during the pandemic, when it’s so hard to meet people on campus,” says Kruepke. “It’s a way to get the college experience that so many people don’t have right now because of COVID-19.”

With a commitment to positive change, Lorenz roots her business in the Wisconsin Idea. Courtesy of Katie Lorenz

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Katie Lorenz ’12 was on a three-week trip to Peru.

She was there to meet with traditional Peruvian knitters and weavers who craft alpaca-fleece goods for Campo Alpaca, the fair-trade company she founded in 2018. She confirmed a year’s worth of orders, then safely made it home to Chicago, just before the United States began to lock down.

Lorenz was among those forced to shift her vision for 2020. She’d planned to bring Campo sweaters, scarves, beanies, and more to fair-trade festivals and other venues, where customers covet the soft, silky knits. When markets were canceled, sales dropped. So Lorenz instead amped up her online marketplace with new products, including Wisconsin-inspired clothing in red and white and cold-weather accessories in green and gold.

Campo Alpaca’s name is inspired by the Spanish phrase cambio positivo, meaning “positive change.” As CEO and an experienced retail consultant, Lorenz is committed to providing fair wages and good working conditions for her artisan partners in Peru. Lorenz, who’s also a manager for digital-services company Accenture, says serving as her UW senior class treasurer pushed her toward a career path with social impact.

“When I came up with the idea of Campo, it was definitely rooted in the Wisconsin Idea,” she says.

The Wisconsin School of Business alumna also gives back by helping her network of craftspeople improve how they do business. For example, she advises small businesses she works with in Lima and Arequipa about how to implement quality control and accounting practices that will allow them to manage future work with larger companies.

Last spring, Lorenz took part in gBETA, a Madison-based business accelerator hosted by gener8tor. She met new mentors, refined her business pitch, and connected virtually with 75 potential investors. But she’s decided to follow one potential investor’s advice by keeping ownership of the entire company as she grows Campo slowly but steadily.

“Never in a million years did I think I’d be turning down investors,” she says.

At the start of 2021, Lorenz reports, Campo’s artisans and partners were all healthy and safe. Online sales were up 80 percent. And she’s looking ahead to future seasons of fair-trade markets and pop-up shops where people can discover Campo Alpaca apparel.

“As soon as people try on the product, touch it, and feel how soft it is,” she says, “it just sells itself.”

Considered essential staff under COVID-19, UW custodian Mailo Thor mops a hallway in the WARF building. Jeff Miller

Due to the pandemic, many companies have been forced to transition their employees to working remotely. And some workplaces have already made the decision to continue doing so even after the pandemic is over, according to Jirs Meuris, a professor in UW–Madison’s Department of Management and Human Resources at the Wisconsin School of Business.

“Probably for certain jobs it works well, but for others, that is not necessarily the case,” he says.

A main advantage to remote working for companies is the cost savings, because employers don’t need to rent or purchase as much office space or pay for utilities and other building maintenance costs. Meuris adds that the ability to work remotely can also be seen as a benefit for staff who desire to work from home.

A downside for employees, though, is that “it’s much harder to set boundaries with your work and home life.” There is the temptation to answer work emails or complete other tasks during evenings or weekends, he says, and this can lead to burnout or work–family conflicts. A second drawback, he adds, is that a lot of innovation and problem-solving “happens through small conversations that people have” when they run into each other throughout the course of the day, “so you have a lot less of that.”

Whether businesses end up bringing their employees back to the office or not, Meuris says, it’s going to take a while for things to feel normal and for organizations to recuperate from the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Deer was the first American Indian woman to run for Congress in Wisconsin. Bryce Richter

Ada Deer grew up on Wisconsin’s Menominee Indian Reservation in a log cabin with no running water or electricity. She attended UW–Madison on a tribal scholarship, becoming the first member of the Menominee tribe to earn a UW–Madison degree. It was the first of many firsts. Next up: she became the first American Indian to earn a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Social Work.

Deer worked relentlessly on behalf of the Menominee in their struggle to restore their land and sovereignty. In the 1950s, the federal government initiated a national termination policy that Deer describes as a “cultural, legal, and economic disaster” for affected tribes.

The Menominee tribe was the first to resist the policy and worked to achieve a historic reversal that set a legal precedent, which was later used by other tribes. The work of their grassroots organization, DRUMS (Determination of Rights and Unity of Menominee Shareholders), resulted in the passage of the Menominee Restoration Act in 1973. Deer was then elected as the first woman to chair the tribe in Wisconsin. She said later, “At Menominee, we collectively discovered the kind of determination that human beings only find in times of impending destruction. Against all odds, we invented a new policy — restoration.”

Deer returned to UW–Madison in 1977 as a lecturer in the American Indian Studies Program and the School of Social Work, and in 1992, she became the first American Indian woman to run for Congress in Wisconsin.

The following year, President Bill Clinton appointed her as the first woman to serve as Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior. One of her most important works in this role was applying her powers to federally recognize 226 Native villages in Alaska, as well as helping to set policy for more than 550 federally recognized tribes.

From 2000 to 2007, Deer directed UW–Madison’s American Indian Studies Program. In 2010, she was recognized by the National Association of Social Workers as a Social Work Pioneer for her work as an advocate and organizer on behalf of American Indians. Deer credits her mother, also a fierce advocate for American Indians, for her confidence and dedication to social justice for all people. “I speak up. I speak out,” she says. “I want to do, and I want to be, and I want to help. And I’ve been able to do it.”

Gary Ebben ’82

Ebben combines an engineering mind with exceptional human-relations skills. Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs

Gary Ebben was inspired to go into military aviation by his older brother, Dale Ebben ’64, who was an Air Force fighter pilot.

Gary retired in 2019 as an assistant adjutant general for air of the Wisconsin Air National Guard. After earning his UW bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering, Ebben pursued Air Force pilot training. As a command pilot, he has logged more than 3,000 flying hours, including 64 combat missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Ebben enlisted in the Wisconsin Air National Guard in 1981 while attending UW–Madison. He rose through the ranks to become vice commander of the 115th Fighter Wing, a unit based in Madison that serves in Iraq and Afghanistan. After 9/11, Ebben oversaw the unit’s rapid conversion to readiness for active-duty service. He then became commander of Wisconsin’s Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center near Camp Douglas. At the time of his retirement, Ebben’s role entailed leading nearly 10,000 airmen and soldiers, as well as the entire Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs, which also includes Wisconsin Emergency Management.

Reflecting on his career, Ebben has been struck by the fact that “we have so many tremendous young men and women in this country — extraordinary individuals who are willing to serve their country and commit to a purpose bigger than themselves. I have been incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to wear the uniform and serve alongside them.”

Ebben has received 21 awards for his service, including the military’s Distinguished Service Medal, the National Guard Association Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, and the Iraq Campaign Medal.

He has been involved with the UW’s ROTC program, providing shadowing and mentoring opportunities. He is active with the Wisconsin National Guard Challenge Academy for high school at-risk youth, and he helped create the Wisconsin Guard’s STARBASE program for fifth-grade science, technology, engineering, and math. Ebben is also an active supporter of the Badger Honor Flight, a program that gives veterans the opportunity to see memorials that have been erected in their honor.

One of his former supervisors, the late Major General Al Wilkening, said that Ebben’s strengths combine an engineering mind with exceptional human-relations skills. “I’ve supervised hundreds of officers in my 40-year career,” he said, “and I’d put Gary in the top 1 percent.”

Thomas J. Falk ’80

Falk: “Never stop being curious about the world around us and the people who live in it.” Courtesy of Kimberly-Clark

Tom Falk grew up in the Milwaukee area as the oldest of nine children. After earning his UW accounting degree, he began his career with what is now Grant Thornton, and in 1983, he joined Kimberly-Clark, known for brands such as Kleenex, Huggies, Scott, Kotex, Cottonelle, and Depend.

The company sent him to Stanford to earn a master’s degree in management, and he steadily worked his way up the ladder, serving as chair of the board and CEO for 16 years before retiring at the end of 2019.

During Falk’s 36-year career, Kimberly-Clark’s total shareholder return outperformed the S&P 500, and he was instrumental in transforming the company into a global leader in consumer products. Over the years, Falk has garnered numerous accolades for his business acumen. Forbes magazine has described him as an “operations wiz,” and Barron’s said he was “a master of efficiency” who ended each day with an empty in-box.

Falk was a key player in the company’s acquisition of Scott Paper, and also in the turnaround of European operations, achieving major efficiencies. He was the chief architect of Kimberly-Clark’s global organizational structure and Go to Market initiatives, which saved more than $200 million in two years by reducing costs in the supply chain. Falk also led sustainability initiatives and increased gender diversity during his time at Kimberly-Clark. An avid reader, he made a habit of preparing an annual booklist so that his team could get to know him better.

Falk has served on the board of visitors for the UW’s business school and has chaired the board for the UW Foundation. Falk and his wife, Karen Falk ’80, have been generous with UW–Madison, supporting endowed faculty chairs and scholarships in both the Wisconsin School of Business and the School of Education, from which Karen graduated.

Falk serves on the boards of Lockheed Martin and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and as a national governor of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. He chaired the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas’s 2013–14 fundraising campaign, and he and Karen chaired the 2019–20 campaign. They also made a generous gift to the organization’s Coronavirus Response and Recovery Fund.

Falk says that the motto he has lived by is “Never stop learning. Never stop being curious about the world around us and the people who live in it. They will teach you something new every day.”