Distinguished Almunus: Ashland's own Keisha Bahr making waves in marine science
Editor's note: The Ashland City Schools Foundation will host its 12th biennial Distinguished Alumni banquet Saturday, Sept. 27, at the Ashland University Convocation Center. Five inductees will be honored, bringing the total inducted since the first event in 2003 to 65. This week, the Ashland Times-Gazette is featuring information on one inductee online Monday-Friday.
Dr. Keisha Bahr, a marine biologist from Ashland, discovered her passion for marine biology through the Tri-County Educational Service Center's marine biology course in her AP biology class.
A transformative, weeklong field experience in the Florida Keys, where she first encountered the ocean, sparked her lifelong passion for marine science and coral reef conservation.
After graduating in 2007, she moved to Florida and then Hawaii, becoming the first in her family to attend college. She earned a bachelor of science in marine biology in 2012 and a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Hawaii in 2016.
Bahr is a tenured associate professor of marine biology at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and the chair for Coral Reef and Ocean Health at the Harte Research Institute.
As a leading expert in coral reef responses to environmental change, her research bridges academia, government agencies and local communities to develop innovative tools for coral reef restoration, preservation and management. She has secured over $6 million in research funding to support coral reef conservation efforts.
Bahr has traveled globally, witnessing pristine coral reefs and observing firsthand the devastating effects of climate change. These experiences strengthened her resolve to protect coral ecosystems.
She led Operation Coral Rescue, relocating over 300 corals from Florida to Texas during a marine heatwave to preserve the critically endangered Staghorn coral. The initiative earned national recognition and established her as a leader in coral conservation.
As a council member of the International Coral Reef Society, Bahr helps shape global research and conservation strategies and has represented the society at the United Nations, advocating for stronger protection of coral reefs.
She also is a pioneer in citizen science, developing coral color cards used in Hawaii, Tahiti and the Caribbean to help local communities monitor coral health.
Bahr's mentorship has earned her the 2023 Outstanding Doctoral Mentor Award and the 2024 College of Science Teaching Excellence Award. She has trained more than 500 students through immersive field courses in Hawaii, Belize and Fiji, shaping the next generation of marine scientists and conservation leaders.
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Keisha Bahr is Ashland City Schools Foundation Distinguished Alumus
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Distinguished Almunus: Ashland's own Keisha Bahr making waves in marine science
Editor's note: The Ashland City Schools Foundation will host its 12th biennial Distinguished Alumni banquet Saturday, Sept. 27, at the Ashland University Convocation Center. Five inductees will be honored, bringing the total inducted since the first event in 2003 to 65. This week, the Ashland Times-Gazette is featuring information on one inductee online Monday-Friday. Dr. Keisha Bahr, a marine biologist from Ashland, discovered her passion for marine biology through the Tri-County Educational Service Center's marine biology course in her AP biology class. A transformative, weeklong field experience in the Florida Keys, where she first encountered the ocean, sparked her lifelong passion for marine science and coral reef conservation. After graduating in 2007, she moved to Florida and then Hawaii, becoming the first in her family to attend college. She earned a bachelor of science in marine biology in 2012 and a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Hawaii in 2016. Bahr is a tenured associate professor of marine biology at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and the chair for Coral Reef and Ocean Health at the Harte Research Institute. As a leading expert in coral reef responses to environmental change, her research bridges academia, government agencies and local communities to develop innovative tools for coral reef restoration, preservation and management. She has secured over $6 million in research funding to support coral reef conservation efforts. Bahr has traveled globally, witnessing pristine coral reefs and observing firsthand the devastating effects of climate change. These experiences strengthened her resolve to protect coral ecosystems. She led Operation Coral Rescue, relocating over 300 corals from Florida to Texas during a marine heatwave to preserve the critically endangered Staghorn coral. The initiative earned national recognition and established her as a leader in coral conservation. As a council member of the International Coral Reef Society, Bahr helps shape global research and conservation strategies and has represented the society at the United Nations, advocating for stronger protection of coral reefs. She also is a pioneer in citizen science, developing coral color cards used in Hawaii, Tahiti and the Caribbean to help local communities monitor coral health. Bahr's mentorship has earned her the 2023 Outstanding Doctoral Mentor Award and the 2024 College of Science Teaching Excellence Award. She has trained more than 500 students through immersive field courses in Hawaii, Belize and Fiji, shaping the next generation of marine scientists and conservation leaders. This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Keisha Bahr is Ashland City Schools Foundation Distinguished Alumus
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There's One Surviving Copy of This Tale of King Arthur's Knights. A Researcher Just Unlocked Its Secrets.
An MIT professor discovered that the Pearl Manuscript from the 1300s has more to it than just four unconnected medieval poems. Professor Arthur Bahr found that along with the tale 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,' the poetry-filled book features plenty of additional aspects far beyond merely words on a page. Bahr has a new book covering the unique aspects of Sir Gawain and the other three poems in the Pearl Manuscript. When MIT literature professor Arthur Bahr spent some time with the manuscript officially dubbed 'British Library MS Cotton Nero A X/2,' it opened his eyes to the mysteries surrounding the legendary tale 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.' The single-bound volume—know more commonly as the Pearl Manuscript—is easily best known for being the only written source of the most famous story of one of King Arthur's most famous Knights of the Round Table. It dates to the 1300s and, alongside the story of Sir Gawain, includes the only surviving copies of three other medieval poems—'Pearl,' 'Cleanness,' and 'Patience.' Many medieval bound volumes were simply different documents bound together—something that has long been fascinated Bahr. But, according to his recent analysis, the Pearl Manuscript is much more than just words on paper. 'My argument is that this physical object adds up to more than the sum of its parts, through its creative interplay of text, image, and materials,' Bahr said in a statement. 'It is a coherent volume that evokes the concerns of the poems themselves. Most manuscripts are constructed in utilitarian ways, but not this one.' Bahr undertook a complete re-examination of the tome, complete with spectroscopic analysis and mathematical investigation, to try and understand this historic text more entirely. In the process, Bahr discovered some of its secrets, which he put together in his own book, 'Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript: Speculation, Shapes, Delight.' 'The more you look,' he said, 'the more you find.' And there was plenty to find. To start, through the spectroscopic analysis—an examination technique in which different wavelengths of light are used to investigate an object—Bahr was able to show that the volume originally featured simple line drawings that were later filled in with colored ink. Additional study of the physical manuscript (rather than the digital images) allowed him to see that the parchment on which these drawings were created was animal skin. Animal hide was not an uncommon material for books to be crafted from at the time—in fact, that's what 'parchment' is. What is uncommon, however, is the particular way in which the parchment was used in the 'Patience' poem. The piece is a reworking of the biblical story of Jonah (the man who survived being swallowed by a whale), and perhaps to provide a more visceral experience for the reader, the parchment was reversed so that the 'hair' side of the material faced the reader rather than the 'flesh' side (as is the case with the other three poems). 'When you're reading about Jonah being swallowed by the whale, you feel the hair follicles when you wouldn't expect to,' Bahr said. 'At precisely the moment when the poem is thematizing an unnatural reversal of inside and outside, you are feeling the other side of another animal As for the the tale of Sir Gawain—who was not only a member of King Arthur's legendary Round Table, but the king's nephew—it comes alive thanks to a combination of the parchment's textures, poems' construction, and intricate illustrations. 'It's a very MIT kind of poem in the sense that not only is the author, or authors, obsessed with math and geometry and numbers and proportion, they are also obsessed with artifact construction, with architectural details, and physical craft,' Bahr said. 'There's a very 'mens et manus' [mind and hand] quality to the poems that's reflected in the manuscript.' While the authorship of each of the poems is unknown, most experts believe every piece contained within the Pearl Manuscript was written by the same person. Sequentially, the manuscript starts with 'Pearl,' followed by 'Cleanness,' 'Patience,' and ending with 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,' which Bahr described as an eerie, surreal tale of courage and chivalry. Bahr said that not only are the four texts thematically linked, but when looked at together the 'manuscript starts to cohere into a wrought, imperfect, temporally layered whole.' The tome is also, it turns out, surprisingly mathematical. For instance, both 'Pearl' and 'Sir Gawain' are written to be exactly 101 stanzas long, which Bahr believes is an intentional imperfection, as a 'perfect' poem would have 100 stanzas even. 'Pearl' is based around the number 12, with all but one of its stanzas featuring 12 lines—another proposed intentional imperfection. There are also 36 lines per page throughout the entirety of the manuscript (notable in a time when books were written by hand and could have as many or as few lines on a page as the writer wished), and both 'Pearl' and 'Sir Gawain' possess numerically consistent structures. Daniel Wakelin of Oxford University said in a statement that Bahr's take presents 'a bold model for studying material texts and literary works together.' Bahr believes that the medieval reading experience was determined by how the reader interacted with the book itself. 'Materiality matters,' he said. 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2024-25 High School Confidential: Week 23
Mar. 27—Welcome to Year 9 of High School Confidential, powered by Danville Area Community College. It's an award-winning project made possible by aspiring student journalists from every corner of our circulation area. Each Thursday through April, they'll tell us what's happening in their hallways at . At least once a week, we'll also hand over our Snapchat account (News-Gazette) to our correspondents for behind-the-scenes tours. Feedback? Email N-G/VP Jim Rossow at . On to this week's report, shortened as many high school are on spring break: The Lincoln Prairie Conference Honor Band performed a concert on March 20 at Cumberland High School. ALAH had the honor to send five seniors to participate in the event: (left to right) band director Ethyan DeLaughter and seniors Dylan Price, Matthew Miller, Arik Stutzman, Gabe Jacobs and Alek Stutzman. The Cerro Gordo/Bement Broncos baseball team won two games in the first week of the season: 13-3 against Meridian and 9-6 against St. Teresa. Pictured: seniors Brody Somers and Brayden Strack. On March 14 — also known as Pi Day (3/14) — students between Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 and Precalculus celebrated. Teacher James Vogel brought in different types of miniature pies to enjoy while they worked, including apple, lemon and chocolate. Other students brought in their favorite circle desserts including oatmeal cream pies, apple pies and a chocolate nutella pie. Vogel printed \different color pages and activities they could work on. Students each got five slips of different colored paper, each color representing a different number. Those slips of paper all became a chain that circled his room. Four years ago students started to work on it starting from one corner of the room to the other. It has finally touched each side of the room completing the first 1,675 digits of Pi. To cap off the last day before spring break: the annual Farmers vs Cropdusters basketball game for boys who don't play on the school's team. It makes for quite an entertaining game, but you would be surprised by the athleticness of some of the players. The teams stayed neck in neck the whole time making for a tense game, but Briar Clark finished it with a game-winning three in the last 10 seconds. The ACES team competed in sectionals at Eastern Illinois the week before spring break, ranking 11th out of 26 schools in its division. Individually, Silas Shirley ranked fifth and Jackson Forest sixth in computer science; Weston Baird was fourth and Owen Clark fifth in engineering graphics; and Spencer Ray was sixth and Ruby Fraser-Soule first in physics. Fraser-Soule will be moving on to th state Competition at EIU in April. Band went on a trip to New Orleans over spring break to perform and enjoy different tours, including the chance to hold alligators. To wrap up the basketball season, local radio station WGCY hosted an all-star game for area boys and girls. Also honored: Mike Allen for his commitment to being a two-time state champion coach and being a founding father of the Heart of Illinois Conference. Over spring break, the softball team opened the season with a 12-2 win against St. Anne and a loss to Clifton Central. Players along with head coach Chelsea Ziegler and assistant coaches Erin Henk and Andy Atchie look forward to upcoming games and what the season will bring. Pictured courtesy Ginger Gonzalez, left to right: (back row) Henk, Mollie Anderson, Madison Barnes, Macy Warner, Melina Vogel, Kennedy Wallace, Kinzley Bailey, Ziegler and team manager Shay Layden; (front row) Peyton Irons, Dakota Resendez and Addyson Kelnhofer. Two students received incredible leadership opportunities last week. Sophomore Peyton Ford will be representing LeRoy and Corn Belt Energy in Washington, D.C., this summer. Ford went through a competitive interview process at Youth Day in Springfield to receive the honor. Ford will join other students from across the nation on the weeklong trip where she will explore historical landmarks, meet legislators and learn about the role of electric cooperatives. Sophomore Annie Conn was selected to represent Section 15 on the IHSA Student Advisory Committee (SAC). SAC gives high school students across Illinois the opportunity to represent their communities. They use their voice to communicate between students and administrators. The SAC provides various leadership opportunities. Conn is an excellent leader at LeRoy. She participates in multiple sports as well as music, which gives her the ability to represent the vast majority of students at LeRoy. Conn went through multiple interviews to achieve this honor. Last Thursday, National Honor Society inducted new members for the 2025-26 group. NHS does a number of good things for the school, such as blood drives, a senior citizens banquet, Character Counts Week and more. NHS President Jossalin Lavicka explained how hard it is to get into NHS, as candidates need to display character, education and be a good person. Pictured: Jossalin Lavicka lighting the candle to start the induction ceremony; Kara Harwood lighting her candle to show that she will follow the four pillard: Service, Leadership, Scholarship and Character. Picture 3; NHS members (left to right, back to front) Harwood, Molly Coffey, Brycea Brown, Sesilia Salinas-Sandness, Braydon Kissack, Kaleb Kuester, Aiden Frerichs, Caleb Clutteur, David Bell, Erica Felton, Kamryn Muehling, Madisyn Laffoon, Ollie Beaty, Jason Moore, Sophie Newman, Lillie Harris, London Clark, Lavicka, Cabery Brown, Zachary Moore and Gage Vogel. Social science club students participated in a movie night, using funds raised by the members of the club during junior high concessions. The students watched "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" and ate Dominos pizza Thursday. The social science club hosts movie nights like this every few months, giving students the chance to mingle and relax while watching historically significant movies. Pictured (left to right) via Kevin Fleckenstein: Caden Logan, Amaya Duzan, Hailie Hall, Carleigh Clifton and Alexis Burch. Student council participated in the district convention at the i Hotel and Illinois Conference Center, where they heard motivating leadership speeches. At the event, Katie Ericksen and Nate Farney were acknowledged for their exceptional efforts and earned roles as liaison and secretary. Thirteen students attended two energizing and educational live shows put on by Hispanic Flamenco Ballet in Decatur Civic Center on March 14, the last day before spring break. Featuring dances, music and traditional costumes from various countries in Spain and Latin America, students were entertained and even invited on stage for interactive dance lessons. A delicious Mexican lunch at Fernando's in Champaign was enjoyed by all as two Spanish 1 students celebrated their birthdays. With spring approaching, students in kindergarten classes taught by Lauren Moses and Erica Kohlmeyer have been learning about rainbows and clouds. The formation of rainbows was taught by allowing the children to use Fruit Loops and build their own with the colors in order. Weather is discussed every morning in the classroom, which helps students understand how to dress for the day and what each type of weather will look like. To celebrate the first day of spring, the class took its annual field trip to the Tuscola Dairy Queen for free cone day. Classroom aides Brooke Morris and Kylie Mixson also attended the fun trip (Morris, Kohlmeyer, Moses and, right, Mixson). The tradition serves a memorable day for all students and a great way to kick off the season. PIctured: Ryleigh Spencer, Connor Smith, Kobe Bruce, Gemma-Lou Atchinson (left) and Wesley Hayes, and Fallon Gooden. The spring musical "Mamma Mia" was a hit with multiple sold-out shows, the audience full of laughter and even shedding tears. Seniors Ava Rauguth, Rylie Vanausdoll, Andrew Spillman, Karson Jeffers, Mya Picazo, Jocelyn Ford, Andrew Bennett, Keller Beachy, Kade Wilcox, Sawyer Woodard, Zack Rennels and Aiden Devlin all took their final bows last week. Their hard work and dedication will not go unnoticed as it is an important highlight of the school's drama program. For senior Brock Schlittler, playing the national anthem on bass guitar in front of a crowd once seemed like an impossible challenge. In his food class, students were given a goal-setting assignment, and his goal was to perform at a sporting event. He submitted the paper and forgot about it. But weeks later, the choir teacher extended an opportunity to play at a football game. Initially hesitant, he decided to embrace the challenge and performed on Senior Night against Monticello. Brock's mother, Heather, suggested he submit a video audition to the Illinois High School Association for a chance to perform at a larger event. He recorded his audition in his backyard and sent it in. To gain more experience, he played the anthem at two home wrestling meets and two boys' basketball games, preparing for a potential state-level performance. IHSA officials were impressed with his submission, and soon, Schlittler received an invitation to perform at the state wrestling tournament at State Farm Center. The performance went well, and the IHSA invited him back to play the anthem at the IHSA boys' basketball state tournament. Before his big performance, he arrived early to rehearse, took a moment to pray with his family, and then delivered a flawless performance in front of a packed stadium. Beyond his solo performances, he plays bass guitar in the country music band Owen Knap and the Rusty Strings, which frequently performs in the Champaign-Urbana area. Last Tuesday, Villa Grove's Special Olympics athletes and coaches began practice. Athletes from elementary school through high school showed excitement for the big day. Practice is a great way for the athletes to bond with their coaches — an amazing experience overall. Ahoy there mateys! Watseka's swashbuckling spring play was performed last weekend. Erik Parmenter and his scurvy crew of actors performed "An Act of Piracy" to the delight of classmates, family and friends alike.
