Marquette University

The Marquette University community is mourning Jacqueline Walker — a woman many came to know simply as "Miss Jackie." She was the Educational Opportunity Program’s financial aid counselor for more than 20 years.

EOP is an academic, federally funded TRiO program that helps low-income and first-generation students pursue a degree in higher education. It was established in 1969 at the university to make a Marquette education more accessible to "culturally distinct students." 

In honor of Black History Month, we're highlighting several black women making history in their roles and industries here in Wisconsin. The series is called Black Women Firsts. 

If you use energy efficient LED light bulbs in your home, you partly have Chuck Swoboda to thank. He spent 16 years as CEO of Cree Inc., a company that helped bring LED lighting to the market.

There are many neighborhoods in Milwaukee that lack easy access to grocery stores. Near West Side Partners and Marquette University have launched The Grocery Challenge to seek solutions.

The old saying goes that nothing is certain but death and taxes. We can add another certainty to that list: our muscles will weaken and even atrophy as we age, unless we take care of them by strength building and exercise. In other words, you really do need to move it, or you will lose it.

Women’s bodies go through many physical changes during and after a pregnancy, but researchers say a mother’s attention to her own health care seems to stop right after the 6-week postpartum checkup.

"They’re so focused on the baby and just lack of sleep, there’s no time or energy to even find time for themselves," says Meredith Cruz of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

There’s a reason why we’re programmed to go to sleep and wake up at a certain time, and there’s a reason we feel discombobulated when that clock is disrupted.

But what scientists are beginning to unravel is the mystery of how disruptions of that body clock can have wide-ranging impacts on our physical and mental health. 

Marquette University biomedical sciences professor Jennifer Evans is one of those scientists and has just received a $1.7 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health to study those questions. 

As Marquette University students return to classes for the fall semester, one department is still missing one of its most high-profile professors.  John McAdams, who has taught in the political science department since 1977, was suspended last academic year.  And the university is reportedly seeking to revoke his tenure.

Ian Kloehn is a junior at Marquette University studying Biomedical Science.  He's also been legally blind since birth, due to a defect that wouldn’t let the optic nerve fully develop.

For some kids who are visually impaired, the classic experience of camp isn’t possible. Or at least, it wasn’t. When Kloehn was a kid, he got to go to a camp for kids just like him. That experience inspired him to create a similar camp.

There are many people looking for solutions to complicated social problems. And while people may have ideas, they don't always have the business acumen needed to get started.

"There's a lot of people that have great ideas and want to get them off of the ground, but there is a little bit of a gap in the initial support at the early stage. And that's where we want to focus so that we can help accelerate and scale these organizations to provide broader impact to the community," Marquette social innovation coordinator Kelsey Otero says.

Most of the world’s rice production occurs oceans away from the United States. In 2011, molecular biologist Michael Schläppi dove into rice research hoping to grow the grain in Wisconsin.

According Schläppi, 80 percent of the rice Americans consume is grown in a handful of states, especially Arkansas and California. “But I think it would be wise to think about, with climate change or the drought in California, maybe they won’t be able to grow rice anymore,” he says.

It’s not often that the wheels of military justice turn outside of military courts. And it’s even less often that the public can watch the proceedings. But thanks to the judicial outreach program of the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, their courtroom is open to any interested party tomorrow in Milwaukee.

There was good news and bad news in the global fight against Ebola yesterday. 

If you follow the news closely in Milwaukee, you’ll often hear expert analysis from people such as political scientist and pollster Charles Franklin, and education policy expert Alan Borsuk. What they have in common is that they’re both employed at the city’s only law school.

Tensions continue to run high in Israel, following the murders of several rabbis by Palestinian militants in a Jerusalem synagogue last month, and recent efforts by the conservative government to formally declare Israel as a Jewish state.