Alyssa LaFaro

On any given day, Alyssa can be found photographing the effects of climate change, digging up long-lost information in the University Archives, or writing furiously in her Bynum Hall office. As the editor of Endeavors, she’s mastered the art of “wearing many hats.” When she’s not behind a camera or a computer, she’s meeting regularly with communicators, students, and faculty from across campus to learn about the latest research projects and unlock new opportunities for collaboration.

Posts by Alyssa LaFaro:

Alan Weakley shows off the storage system at the UNC Herbarium. Founded in 1908 by William Chambers Coker, it resides on the top floor of Coker Hall and is the largest in the Southeast. In 2000, it became part of the North Carolina Botanical Garden. Specimens are kept within folders inside large, green cabinets that litter the various floors of the building.

The Flora Files

In the last 50 years, botanists have discovered more than 500 new species of plants across the Southeast. But it takes decades to actually study and record their existence — a feat that the UNC Herbarium has been tackling since its inception in 1908.
a graphic showing two beer bottles, one half full & one full, and reads "people with autism are twice as likely to use drugs and alcohol than someone without the disorder"graphic by Corina Cudebec

Different Disorders, Similar Stigma

People with autism are twice as likely to use drugs and alcohol than someone without the disorder — a statistic that most people are unaware of. To educate the public on this topic, UNC autism professional Ann Palmer and addiction specialist Elizabeth Kunreuther teamed up to write a book: “Drinking, Drug Use, and Addiction in the Autism Community.”
a woman and a man in blue lab coats lower the pressure gage on technical equipment inside a labphoto by Alyssa LaFaro

Catalyzing Innovation

Over the last five years alone, more than 15 UNC students have accepted jobs at Eastman, a materials and specialty additives company in Kingsport, Tennessee. On top of hiring Carolina grads, the company supports research projects across four departments within three schools at UNC, creating a successful model for how industry partnerships function at the university.
a 20-something woman sits cross-legged on a rock and looks into the distancephoto by Alyssa LaFaro

The Kids Are Not Alright

Even though more than 1.4 million American children under the age of 18 care for siblings or parents who have a chronic illness or disability, support for this demographic is in short supply. UNC geographer Elizabeth Olson and collaborators look to other countries as models for growing youth caregiver resources in the United States.
a blond woman holds two fingers up to a toddler, trying to teach her how to countphoto courtesy of Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute

The One Doing the Talking

Across the nation, data indicate that meaningful conversations between teachers and students from kindergarten to third grade are limited to an average of 28 total minutes per day — something that prevents children from developing their ability to communicate in important ways. The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute’s FirstSchool initiative strives to change that.
seven men from a widowed fathers support group stand together and pose for a photophoto by Brian Strickland

Brotherhood of Hope

In October 2010, seven men embarked on a rare and unexpected journey — they joined a support group for widowed fathers. The experience was so instrumental in their healing that the group’s organizers, UNC researchers Don Rosenstein and Justin Yopp, wrote a book about it called, “The Group: Seven Widowed Fathers Reimagine Life.”
Making-Scientists

Making Scientists

Thanks to an industry partnership with Eastman and the Eastman Foundation, UNC’s BeAM makerspace program provides the resources for free 3-D printing to all students, faculty, and staff — encouraging a culture of creativity at Carolina.
a handful of complex physics equations like E = mc2 on a background of the universe (lots of stars)graphic by Corina Cudebec

Speaking Math

Imagine a sentence so long that it would take an entire lifetime to read it — that’s the kind of problem Joaquín Drut faces every day. The UNC physicist works with numbers too large to compute in an effort to better understand the way our universe works.
a 40-something male holds a container of fruit flies -- shelves with colorful labels are in the backgroundphoto by Alyssa LaFaro

Why a Fly?

The genome of a fruit fly is strikingly similar to that of a human — so much so that scientists have been studying these tiny insects for over 100 years, in search of treatments for diseases like spinal muscular atrophy and neurological disorders. UNC geneticist Bob Duronio is one of those scientists.