Climbing the Ladder One Pint at a Time

In addition to expanding their beer sales to 35 states, Matt (right) and Rich (left) Fleischer are converting a former Silver Spring, Md., firehouse into the Hook & Ladder Restaurant and Brewery. The menu will feature their craft beers (below), a subtle firefighter theme and some beer-inspired recipes.

Brothers Matt M.B.A. ’05 and Rich M.P.P. ’06 Fleischer have brewed up an unusual combination of American pastime and charitable giving to create a heady business venture—one that revolves, quite successfully, around beer.

With names like Backdraft Brown and LIGHTER, the brothers’ craft beers carry a little something extra in each keg and bottle.That’s because the mission of their Hook & Ladder Brewing Co. is twofold: to produce great beer and to support firefighters in the communities where their products are sold.With each sale, the company and its wholesalers donate cash to firefighter burn foundations or hospital burn centers.

In one year, they took their beer from three states to 15, expanded from seven to 70 wholesalers and mapped out a plan that should have their product in most of the country by the end of 2008. They’ve gone from making 4,000 barrels of beer annually to an expected 50,000 and plan to open a restaurant and brewery this fall.

“We not only work hard,” says Matt. “We really enjoy the product we make.” The company began as a hobby for Rich, who was living in San Francisco and served up what would become the company’s Golden Ale at parties.Though product was pouring into glasses, there weren’t enough investors to keep the fledgling company afloat.

So Rich teamed up with his brother. On Matt’s first day of classes at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, he stopped by the Dingman Center to present his business plan. He left with a scholarship and eventually a $10,000 seed investment.

“One of the things that attracted me from the get-go was the integration of good product with an authentic charitable mission and a winning marketing concept,” says Adam Lehman, entrepreneur in residence at Dingman and now a member of Hook & Ladder’s board of directors.

In just 18 months, the company gave more than $30,000 to charity, with gifts staying in the communities where beer is purchased. Contributions are a requirement for those who sell Hook & Ladder, and though the concept is unusual, there’s been little resistance.The brothers say people in all markets recognize the risks firefighters take for their communities.

“It’s tied to our brand,” says Rich, a master firefighter himself.“We’re a beer company, but giving back to firefighters and making sure the gifts stay focused locally are part of what we do.” —KM

Protecting Her Adopted Home

At 5-foot-1, with degrees in chemical engineering, computer science and public administration, Anh Duong ’82 is a major threat to terrorists.

AFTER THE FALL of South Vietnam in 1975, Anh Duong ’82 and her family fled to the United States as refugees of war. A 15-year old feeling scared and lost in her adopted country, Duong was resilient. Her gratitude for the American and South Vietnamese troops who saved her life and earned her a second chance in America has been her driving force; more than 30 years later, Duong works for the Department of Defense keeping her new country safe.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Duong was charged with designing a way to destroy tunnels and bunkers used as terrorist hideouts to spare U.S. troops from having to clear them out. In only 67 days, she led a team of more than 100 scientists, engineers and technicians from concept to product—the United State’s first thermobaric bomb.

“With the fresh image of the Sept. 11 victims in our minds and the prospect of U.S. casualties in those cave battles, all of us were motivated beyond belief,” says Duong. “Failure was not an option.”

Today, Duong is science advisor to both the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information, Plans and Strategy and to the Director of Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). This time she embarks on a mission to help identify terrorists through forensic analysis of left-behind weapons, cell phones, bomb fragments and other clues. Duong’s team rapidly designs, creates and deploys Joint Expeditionary Forensics Facilities for U.S. forces in Iraq. Information generated from these mobile “labs in a box” can help identify, target, detain and prosecute terrorists.

In 2007, Duong was awarded the Service to America Medal for National Security for her contribution to our country. Although she views the recognition as a great honor, she says, “the award is much less a reflection of my very humble accomplishments than it is a reflection of this great land and its people.”

From a scared freshman entering Maryland on the first morning of fall semester to a confident and poised graduate ready to take on the world’s problems, Duong can’t help but think that a new sign should mark the entrance to campus. “Welcome to the World” it would read. She says, “Maryland did indeed open the world for me.” -MLB

Answering the Dolphins’ Call

SeaWorld’s 35 years of experience with marine mammals led to Discovery Cove, a park providing guests memorable interactions with birds, stingrays, sharks and bottlenose dolphins, like Dixie, pictured here with senior animal trainer, Rhonda Handler ’98.

“MY MOTHER CALLED me her ‘tomboy in lace,’” says Rhonda Handler ’98, who would return home as a child covered in dirt from her latest wildlife adventure. From pets to marine mammals, life is still something of a zoo for the senior animal trainer at Discovery Cove in Orlando, Fla., an interactive park where guests may snorkel with exotic fish and rays and swim with dolphins.

Handler’s career with the SeaWorld family of parks has evolved into one focusing on dolphins, however, the animal trainer and Maryland alumna has also worked with sloths, birds, anteaters and even elephants.

A biological sciences major, Handler was introduced to marine mammals when she worked as an intern at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. “I think there are many traits that we as a society value in people that dolphins seem to exhibit,” says Handler of the connections between humans and marine mammals. “Dolphins are highly intelligent and they form strong social bonds with each other.”

Caring for animals always seemed second nature to Handler, whose career path took her to the National Institutes of Health, where she worked with primates, before she trained animals for both the small and the silver screens. Today, she is working her dream job—albeit not all glamorous. Long before sunrise, she prepares fish to feed the park’s 40 Atlantic bottlenose dolphins she is charged with training.

Handler also mentors Discovery Cove staff who gather guests in the park’s lagoons for guided dolphin interactions. Even more than creating lasting memories of getting up close and personal with one of nature’s more human-like animals, Handler hopes that her work fosters in people “a better understanding of marine life.” By facilitating these meetings across the species, she educates guests on their marine mammal cousins and on the environment dolphins inhabit.

From courses focusing on conservation and psychology to working for the College Park Animal Hospital and learning to scuba dive, Handler’s Maryland experience was a springboard for her professional aspirations. “My career has been an amazing one,” she says. Having traded her lacy girl’s dresses for wetsuits, the proud Terp is an inspiration to adventurers and animal lovers alike. -RR

Recruit-a-Terp

Alumni Help Attract Top Talent

MIX ENERGETIC ALUMNI, promising future Terps, the Alumni Association and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.The result is a program called Recruit-a-Terp.

Recruit-a-Terp is looking for alumni volunteers across the country to help enlist prospective students during the school year. Enthusiastic alumni have the opportunity to share their Maryland experiences with prospective students and their families at various events.These include regional recruitment receptions for talented high schoolers and summer send-off programs for incoming Maryland students and their parents. Many alumni have even hosted recruitment activities in their own homes.

“The opportunity to meet and connect with prospective students and their parents as well as meet other alumni locally is very rewarding,” says Gene Wasserman ’92, a Recruit-a-Terp volunteer. “As a native Marylander, I am very proud of my alma mater.The Recruit-a-Terp program has given me the opportunity to extol the virtues and opportunities a Maryland education and experience can provide.”

As the university continues to rise in stature, Maryland advocates are needed across the country.“Alumni bring the Maryland story to life—they are tangible examples of what it means to be a Terp,” says Remy Shaffer Gomes ’00, director of student and young alumni programs for the Alumni Association.

To join Recruit-a-Terp, visit www.alumni.umd.edu to fill out the volunteer form. For more information, contact Monica Press ’07, graduate assistant for student and young alumni programs, at mpress@ur.umd.edu or 301.405.7891. -MLB

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