Class Notes
Share your news with UConn Nation!
Your classmates want to know about — and see — the milestones in your life. Send us news about weddings, births, new jobs, new publications, and more — along with hi-res photos — to: Alumni News & Notes, UConn Foundation, 2384 Alumni Drive, Unit 3053, Storrs, CT 06269.
Submissions may be edited for clarity or length.
Proud alum Roger Shatanof ’56 (CLAS) of Coral Gables, Florida, spreads UConn’s fame throughout the state.
After serving as a board director for six years, Christopher P. Mottern ’66 (BUS) was appointed interim CEO of Farmer Bros. Co. His 40 years in the food and beverage industry include serving as CEO of Peet’s Coffee & Tea and Capri Sun, Inc. and as president of The Heublein Wines Group.
Jacqueline Dembar Greene ’67 (ED) published her 41st YA novel, “Walk Till You Disappear,” set in Arizona Territory in 1872. She began her writing career with the encouragement of Francelia Butler, who taught children’s literature at UConn. Greene lives in Wayland, Massachusetts, with her husband, Malcolm R. Greene ’65 (CLAS).
Miriam Erick ’70 (CLAS), of Boston, updated her manual “Take Two Crackers and Call Me in the Morning! A real-life guide for surviving morning sickness.” Erick won the Pyramid Award from the New England chapter of the American Medical Writers’ Association in 1994 and an Award in Excellence from the American Dietetics Association Foundation for her work in prenatal nutrition. She covered the high-risk pregnancy unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for more than 37 years.
Carl Labbe ’75 (PHAR) has retired after a long career in pharmacy that began when he hit the road after graduation in a VW Rabbit for a cross-country trip. He ended up in Arizona and stayed there. Initially, he managed Wastchak’s Pharmacy and developed a variety of nonprescription products. Eventually, he became manager of the Student Health Center Pharmacy at Arizona State University. Later he became a pharmacy preceptor, adjunct faculty in the school of nursing, and a biology instructor. He also developed a collaborative smoking cessation practice. He and his wife, Kathryn, also a pharmacist, have two grown children.
Richard T. Minoff ’75 (CLAS), an associate professor and director of the Undergraduate Business Program at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, received the University’s William F. Homiller Award for Teaching Excellence. He is a member of UConn’s Charles Lewis Beach Society.
Tom Morganti ’76 (CAHNR), a veterinarian living and working in Avon, Connecticut, published a third YA novel, “In the Shadow of the Sun Dog.”
David Scaccia ’76 (CLAS) was inaugurated as president of the Maine Osteopathic Association during its June 2019 con-vention in Rockport. Board certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties in occupational medicine and by the American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians in family medicine, he practices as a private occupational med-icine physician consultant in Kittery, Maine.
Tom Jeffrey ’76 (ENG) became a Life Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers after retiring from a long career in aerospace and defense electrical engineering. He worked for seven years at the GE Aerospace Electronic Systems unit and 33 years at the Raytheon Company’s Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) division. Jeffrey was a systems architect and led a number of defense electronic systems developments. He specialized in radar systems primarily for surveillance and missile defense applications on land, sea, and air platforms for the U.S. Navy, Army, and Air Force. He has written two technical books and two music-related books.
John McGrane ’78 (ENG) became a senior consultant for GEI, where he will help expand the company’s flood management and municipal engineering practices across the eastern U.S. and elsewhere. McGrane spent more than 20 years in Hartford’s Department of Public Works.
Michael J. Sweeney ’79 MBA is senior vice president, strategic vendor programs for the Commercial Finance Division of TIAA Bank.
Marie George ’81 (CAHNR, CLAS) was elected vice president of the medical staff at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, where she is an infectious disease specialist.
Isabel (Munat) Cole ’82 (CLAS) was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee to Washington’s Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals, the state agency that hears all workers’ compensation claims. Cole spent 22 years as an air traffic controller and, during her last three and a half years, attended law school. After passing the bar, she represented injured workers.
Jeff Denman ’82 MA just retired from 34 years of teaching world geography and U.S. history in the public schools in Brookline, Massachusetts. He recently published a book “Greene and Cornwallis in the Carolinas: The Pivotal Battle of the American Revolution, 1780-1781.”
Richard Goodwin Sr. ’83 MBA published “Running Life Matters; A Celebration of Running and Life Connections,” a book that celebrates the community of runners, particularly lifelong runners.
Brian Sprague ’84 (ENG) joined MaxLinear Inc. as vice president and general manager for broadband and consumer products. He has worked in a variety of engineering and marketing roles at United Technologies Corp., LSI Logic Inc., and Broadcom Corp.
Joanne C. Crevoiserat ’85 (BUS) has been named CFO of Tapestry, Inc., a New York-based house of modern luxury accessories and lifestyle brands. She joins Tapestry from Abercrombie & Fitch and previously held senior finance positions with Kohl’s Inc., Wal-Mart Stores, and May Department Stores.
Gary L. McGuirk ’85 JD, a private wealth advisor at Merrill Private Management, was named to Barron’s Top 1,200 Advisors, The Financial Times’ Top 400 Financial Advisors, and Forbes’ Best-in-State Wealth Advisors lists. He joined Merrill in 2002.
Richard S. Martin ’86 (BUS) has joined RentPath as CFO. He had been CFO of Symphony Health Solutions.
Susan Cossette ’86 (CLAS), ’92 MA has been named director of annual giving for the Breck School in Golden Valley, Minnesota. Founded in 1886 and rooted in Episcopal values, Breck is a pre-K to 12 college preparatory day school with more than 1,100 students. Cossette recently published her first collection of poems, “Peggy Sue Messed Up,” and is active in the Minneapolis arts community.
Stephen W. Aronson ’87 JD, a partner at Robinson & Cole, was awarded Volunteer of the Year by the Pro Bono Partnership.
Karen Avitabile ’88 (CLAS), who majored in journalism at UConn, was appointed editor of The Catholic Transcript, a 175,000-circulation magazine for the Archdiocese of Hartford, which serves Hartford, New Haven, and Litchfield counties.
Jeanne Zulick Ferrulo’s ’88 (CLAS), recent children's book “Ruby in the Sky” made The Washington Post summer reading list.
David Waren ’89 JD is the new president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford. He was vice president of regional operations and advancement for the Anti-Defamation League.
Ann Marie (Griskauskas) Hoffmaster ’89 (CLAS) is director of human resources for Hertzbach & Co. She and her husband Brian live in Maryland with their children Meredith and Wyatt.
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Reina Weiner ’89 (BGS) drew on her own experiences for her book “Trust Your Doctor . . . But Not That Much: Be Your Own Best Healthcare Advocate.”
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Michael W. Glynn ’91 (CLAS), ’94 MS was named a partner in the New York City office of Fox Rothschild LLP. His practice centers on trade secret and patent litigation with a strong emphasis on pharmaceutical patents.
Robert H. Bateman Jr. ’91 MBA was named CFO and treasurer of Amerisure Mutual Insurance Co. He was CFO with Infinity Property & Casualty Corp. and held numerous leadership roles at The Hartford.
Thomas Huszar ’92 (CLAS) joined The Sullivan Law Firm as a partner in its New York City office. Huszar, who advises public and private businesses and high-net-worth individuals on strategic and operational issues, earned a law degree from Washington University School of Law and an MBA from Washington University’s Olin Business School.
Brian Wolf ’92 (ENG) joined Hatch Mott MacDonald in Holyoke, Massachusetts, as a principal project manager.
Marci (Castaldi) Hinton ’93 (CLAS), an educator in the Waterbury public school district for 22 years, was selected as a 2019 Fund for Teachers Fellow. She and two colleagues attended a bespoke educator mindfulness training in Nepal to address student trauma related to a peer’s murder and to facilitate emotional regulation and healing within the school community.
Rabih M. Barakat, ’93 (ENG), ’09 MBA, who works at the Connecticut Department of Transportation, was elected to the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers. mmunity.
Rob Carolla ’94 (CLAS) will head up communications for XFL Dallas after spending nearly 25 years as a sports administrator. He was president of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the national organization for communicators in college athletics. During stints at the College Football 150th Anniversary, the Big 12 and Big East conferences, and Conference USA, he worked on national, regional, and local levels.
David Unger ’95 (CAHNR) is senior vice president responsible for developing renewable natural gas business projects at Foristar, LLC. He was director of renewable energy at Waste Management, where he oversaw the marketing and development of beneficial use landfill gas projects.
Jasmine Alcantara ’95 (BUS), ’99 MBA opened Jasmine Yoga, a New England–based health and wellness company. By pairing her pre-med degrees with 20 years of health industry experience, she created yoga and meditation programs for corporations, groups, and individuals. munity.
Maryne Robin ’96 MBA was named vice president of operations for Absolute Logic and CyberGuard360.
David M. Silver ’96 MSW of West Hartford and his wife Hilary became grandparents to Saul Jonathan Langer, born in June in Washington, D.C., David was executive director of the UConn Hillel Foundation from 1990 to 1993.
Vincent Pace ’98 JD, ’09 ML is assistant general counsel at Eversource Energy. His practice area includes state regulatory proceedings in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
Keith Moskowitz ’98 JD was named a Notable Gen X Leader in the Law by Crain’s Chicago Business. He is a partner at Dentons law firm.
Elena S. Trueworthy ’99 (BUS) was named director of the Connecticut Head Start State Collaboration Office, which provides comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition, and patient involvement services to low-income children and their families.
Robert E. Grady ’99 JD has joined Shipman & Goodwin’s real estate practice group as a partner in the Hartford office. He was a founding partner of Logan Grady LLC in Rocky Hill, Connecticut.
Chris Calio ’00 JD, ’00 MBA will be president of the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies, effective early 2020. He has served as president of Pratt & Whitney’s commercial engines business since 2017.
Michael A. Rueda ’01 (BUS), who heads up the U.S. sports and entertainment team at Withers international law firm, was just made partner. Rueda, who lives in Stamford, advises athletes and entertainment clients.
Lisa Holloway ’02 MSW is vice president of health services for The Kendal Corp., a senior living organization in Philadelphia. She had been vice president/administrator of health services at Duncaster, a retirement community in Bloomfield, Connecticut.
Stephen Davis ’02 (BUS) of Burlington, Massachusetts, is principal in the healthcare practice at executive search firm WittKieffer.
Joseph R. Sowin ’02 (BUS) is co-chief investment officer of Highland Capital Management LP, where he oversees investment activities for the firm’s multi-billion-dollar alternative investment platform.
Shawn M. Bowman ’02 (BUS) is president of the Wound Care Division of Sanara MedTech in Fort Worth, Texas. He has spent 18 years in the medical device, biologics, and pharmaceutical industries.
Alexander Hanna ’03 (BUS) is assistant principal of Cloonan Middle School in Stamford.
Mohan Nair Manoj Kumar ’04 MS, ’06 Ph.D. is senior staff scientist at LexaGene Holding Inc., a biotech company that develops instrumentation for pathogen detection. He was at Beckman Coulter Molecular Diagnostics and at Roche Molecular Systems.
D. Zachary Champ ’05 (CLAS) is chief of staff of the Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. Zac was vice president of government affairs at the Wireless Infrastructure Association. He and his wife Jane live in Washington, D.C.,
Phillip Yu ’05 MS received the 3M Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Excellence Award and the Espirit Team Award for 2018. He was responsible for VHB tapes and primers as senior product engineer in the Industrial Adhesives and Tapes Division.
David Agrawal ’05 (CLAS) is associate professor with tenure in the Martin School of Public Policy and the Department of Economics at the University of Kentucky.
Matthew Fitzsimmons ’05 JD has joined the law firm of Shipman & Goodwin as a partner. He will be a part of the state attorneys general and data privacy and protection practice groups. He was U.S. privacy officer and lead cybersecurity counsel at Cigna Corp.
D. Zachary Champ ’05 (CLAS) is chief of staff of the Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. Zac was vice president of government affairs at the Wireless Infrastructure Association. He and his wife Jane live in Washington, D.C.,
Matthew Biron ’06 (CAHNR) and Caitlyn Willox-Biron ’06 (CLAS) welcomed their daughter Ruby in October 2018.
Natalie Wagner ’06 JD was named interim director of the Connecticut Bar Foundation, a non-profit that provides grants to legal agencies who work for communities that could not otherwise afford it. She was counsel to former Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and counsel at the Shipman & Goodwin law firm.
Liliana Alexandra Carlson ’06 (NURS) graduated from Quinnipiac University in May with a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. She works at Yale-New Haven Hospital and lives in Derby, Connecticut, with her husband Matt, their children Nathan and Lily,
and their dog Bailey.
William A. Powers ’06 JD has joined Nossaman LLP in Washington, D.C., as a partner in the firm’s public policy practice group focused on political law and campaign finance issues.
Kristina Allen Reliford ’07 (BUS) joined Bradley Arant Boult Cummings as an associate in the litigation practice group in Nashville, Tennessee. Her practice includes complex contract disputes, fraud, trade secret misappropriation, and securities and government investigation matters. She was a senior associate at Kelley Drye & Warran LLP in New York.
As president of Omni Food Sales in New York, Zak Romanoff ’07 (CLAS) found he was getting a lot of requests to talk to media outlets about the food industry. So he started the podcast “The Brand Advocate.”
Naya, a 3-year-old Husky, was the flower girl at the recent wedding of her human companion Michael Lyon ’08 (CLAS) to Corinna Edwards in Nashville, Tennessee.
Dawit Zeweldi ’08 MS, ’10 Ph.D. joined Freese and Nichols Inc. as a stormwater engineer in Dallas. Zeweldi, who has 20 years experience in water resources planning, design, and implementation, earned his bachelor’s in irrigation engineering from Arba Minch Water Technology Institute in Ethiopia prior to coming to UConn.
Salay Stannard ’09 (ENG), ’13 MS is materials engineering manager at Joining Technologies, Inc., an innovator in industrial laser applications.
Michael Cohen ’09 Ph.D. is senior vice president and chief data science and analytics officer at Marketing Evolution, a provider of marketing measurement and optimization solutions. He was at Oath: Data Products and on the faculty at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Ryan DiLeo ’09 (BUS), ’10 MS married Meghan Willen in May. They live in Orlando, where they tell us they are starting a family.
Noelle Lara Horelik ’10 (CLAS), a TV writer for Dreamworks, is working on a kids’ animated comedy set for Netflix this fall. For two seasons she was host of Amazon Prime/Science Channel’s “Science Works,” an educational series showcasing how science, technology, engineering, and math are applied to real-life careers.
Maya (Merson) Shagas ’10 (BUS) published “Numbers Game: The Practical Guide to Getting the Job You Deserve,” a book on recruiting, hiring, interviewing, and entering the workforce.
Emily Kozak ’10 (BUS) and Chris Halloran ’10 (CLAS) tied the knot in May in Charleston, South Carolina. They met sophomore year at Hilltop Suites, where they lived on opposite sides of the same floor. They reconnected after college and, after living in Manhattan and Brooklyn, relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. Among the Huskies at the wedding were Ariel Grossman Winkley ’10 (BUS), Rebecca Levine Hadfield ’11 (BUS), Lisa Mutnick ’10 (CLAS), Ilana Eides ’11 (BUS), Lyndsey Sonkin ’10 (NURS), Jennifer Pagano ’10 (CLAS), Matt Bahr ’10 (CLAS), Pat Swidler ’10 (CLAS), Mike McManus ’10 (CLAS), Michael Dealy ’10 (BUS), Blake O’Brien ’09 (CLAS), Lukasz Dec ’11 (CLAS), Kate Halloran ’07 (CLAS), and Adam Porter-Price ’06 (CLAS). They certainly bleed blue!
Emmanuel Omokaro ’11 (ED) was named ESPN’s Volunteer of the Year. As team leader for BuildOn he helped raise nearly $40,000 to build a school in Senegal, and went to Senegal to oversee the construction. In Chad he and friends built water pumps to get clean water to people. He was also involved in hurricane relief efforts in Houston and in the U.S. Virgin Islands and will be heading to Guatemala later this year for another school build.
Michael Chase ’11 JD published “How to Become a Federal Criminal,” illustrating bizarre and outdated federal laws, most rarely or never enforced. He is an associate at Shipman & Goodwin LLP in Hartford and owner of the @CrimeADay Twitter account.
Kyle Campbell ’12 (CLAS) is director of game day entertainment with the New Orleans Saints. He says the football team was ranked #1 in game day entertainment and overall game day satisfaction in the NFL for the 2018 season. He oversees all entertainment in the Mercedes Benz Superdome, including the national anthem singers, color guard, halftime entertainment, player introductions, music, and PA announcements.
Samantha (D’Angelo) Wiegel ’12 (SFA, ED) received an MA in teaching in May from Sacred Heart University, where she won the 2019 Outstanding Master’s Degree Award.
Ryan V. Powell ’13 (CLAS), ’18 JD is an associate in the workers’ compensation practice group at Goldberg Segalla’s Hartford office.
Elizabeth Crowley ’13 (CLAS) and Kevin Scheller ’13 (CLAS) married on Dec. 15, 2018, in Mystic, Connecticut, six years after meeting at The Daily Campus. The wedding party was packed with Huskies, including Lindsay Kovacic Schaffer ’13 (BUS) and Will Schaffer ’12 (BUS), Kimberly Wilson Fillion ’14 (CLAS), Shreena Desai ’13 (ENG), Jacob Orbach-Smith ’16 (CLAS), and Caroline Dunn. They moved to Sacramento, where Elizabeth is digital strategist for Toni Atkins, California state senate president pro tem.
Salman H. Al-Zayani ’15 Ph.D. won the Medical Award for Excellence in Community Medicine 2018 from the Venus International Foundation in Chennai, India.
Igers Vangjeli ’15, LLM, ’17 JD was hired by Cordell & Cordell, a litigation firm that represents men in family law cases, in their Independence, Missouri, office. He says he is drawn to family law because it lets him help families through a difficult time.
Juanita Austin ’16 (SFA) launched Cultured AF, an arts and culture lifestyle brand. She also opened Cultured Studios, an arts and social lounge that features visual and performing arts, in New London.
Leo S. Lo ’17 MA is associate dean for learning, undergraduate services, and Commonwealth Campus Libraries at Penn State.
Joseph P. Mortelliti ’17 JD joined Kahan Kerensky Capossela LLP as an associate in the firm’s real estate, litigation, and land use departments.
Emily Forauer ’18 (CAHNR, CLAS) was named the first David Theno Food Safety Fellow by Stop Foodborne Illness during the annual conference of the International Association for Food Protection. The fellowship honors Theno’s work by promoting food safety education and by helping students pursuing careers in food safety. She will be working with Stop Foodborne Illness in Chicago..
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