2010s
The co-owners of Bell Tower Brewing Co. (L to R): Jennifer Hermann, Ryan Tipton and Bridget Tipton; photo courtesy of Bell Tower Brewing
Ryan Tipton, BA ’10, MS ’14, Kent, OH, Bridget Adams Tipton, BA ’10, BS ’18, MArc ’19, Kent, OH, and Jennifer Hermann, BA ’97, Kent, OH, launched Bell Tower Brewing Co. this fall in a historic church near downtown Kent, following more than a year’s worth of delays due to the coronavirus pandemic. The three Kent State alumni co-founded Bell Tower Brewing and purchased the property at 310 Park Ave. in August 2020, after the building’s most recent owner, R.W. Martin, moved to a larger space. The building housed the former First Congregational Church from 1858 until the 1940s. R.W. Martin, an industrial laundry equipment company, was headquartered there since the 1950s.
According to a June 18, 2021, Cleveland.com article, the trio hope the brewery, with its unique setting and proximity to downtown Kent, will become a neighborhood gathering spot that appeals to both college students and local residents with a mix of easy-drinking beers, shareable menu items and community events. The new brewery can host about 300 people with its patio, main dining area and side rooms (available for reservations).
Ryan Tipton, a user experience designer at Optum, has about 10 years of homebrewing experience and served as president of the Kent Junior Chamber of Commerce when it brought the first Craft Beer Festival to Kent in 2019.
Jennifer Hermann grew up in Kent, became obsessed with brewing and landed jobs at several brewing companies in Ohio while perfecting her own beer recipes at home. She returned to Kent in 2015 with the dream of running a brewery and connected with Ryan through talks and homebrew demonstrations.
Bridget Adams Tipton, a designer with Paino Architects & Builders, part-time adjunct faculty in interior design at Kent State and a member of the Kent Junior Chamber of Commerce, has transformed the historic building with a new look. The building’s back room, formerly a gymnasium, houses a 10-barrel brewing system with plenty of room for expansion as the brewery grows.
Bell Tower offers gluten-reduced beers to accommodate drinkers with diet sensitivities, as well as German lagers, Belgian farmhouse beers, IPAs and more. Hermann likes to brew beers in the 4.5–5.5% alcohol content range, what she calls “lawn-mowing beers.” On hot summer days, she says, you can drink a few while hanging out with your friends—and still go home and mow the lawn. Learn more at www.belltowerbrewing.com.
John Dayo-Aliya, attended Kent State 2009-2010, Akron, OH, was named the 2020/2021 Nord Family Foundation Playwright fellow at Cleveland Public Theatre, a program for playwrights and creators from Northeast Ohio that offers opportunities to develop work through staged readings and workshop productions.
According to an article in Clevelandmagazine.com, Dayo-Aliya (formerly known as John W. Burton) will develop Our Lady of Common Sorrows, a play about a Black family whose faith is tested when they discover that their youngest member, a 14-year-old virgin, has become pregnant. The Akron native has produced eight plays in the last nine years. As a playwright fellow, he welcomes the opportunity to bring Black voices and urban stories to the stages of CPT and create opportunities for other Black artists, who often face challenges to getting their art seen.
Carlos Mojica, BA ’11, MA ’14, Ravenna, OH, is communications manager with the Columbus Crew, an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio, and the current Major League Soccer champion.
As an English editor and beat writer for Centro Deportivo, he wrote and edited articles and editorials in English and Spanish for electronic and print media, assisted with running the social media accounts, and attended and reported on Major League Soccer, US Soccer and international matches.
Mojica, who was born in El Salvador and moved to the US when he was 11, speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese. He has a bachelor’s in international relations and a master’s in political science from Kent State. He also was coordinator, Safety & Security, for five years at Kent State. He oversaw the hiring, training, scheduling, development and evaluation of student staff; conducted community outreach; and served as an interpreter for local police.
Damien Beauchamp, BS ’12, Hillsborough, NC, has been promoted to president of 8 Rivers Capital LLC, a Durham, North Carolina-based firm leading the invention and commercialization of sustainable, infrastructure-scale technologies for global energy transition.
Beauchamp has driven revenue growth, project development and strategic partnerships since joining 8 Rivers in 2016, serving most recently as the firm’s chief development officer and previously as chief of staff. He previously founded two startups—for which he was named to the Forbes “30 Under 30” list and featured in Fortune—while pursuing a master’s degree in chemistry from The Ohio State University.
8 Rivers is the inventor of the Allam-Fetvedt Cycle, a net-zero power solution that was named “Breakthrough Technology of the Year 2018” by the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference and is anticipated to form a cornerstone of clean energy transition. The firm also focuses on developing and deploying technologies for clean hydrogen and ammonia, direct air capture, carbon capture, sour gas sweetening and space-based solar power. For more information visit www.8Rivers.com.
Mackenzie Hughes, BBA ’12, Charlotte, NC, competed in golf in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. The Canadian native was tied with fellow Canadian and Golden Flash Corey Conners, BS ’14, for 17th at the end of the third round but finished 50th with a -3 overall.
Eric Mansfield, MA ’12, Akron, OH, has partnered with a pair of Ohio theaters to professionally produce his original stage plays for their 2021-2022 seasons. Love in Reserve, a love story that chronicles the challenges of a military couple separated during the Iraq war, debuted in November 2021 at Rubber City Theatre in Akron; Whitesville, an intense family drama that follows the struggles of a mixed-race family in the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, premiers in April 2022 at the Akron Civic Theatre in partnership with the Millennial Theatre Project. Love in Reserve was named a national semi-finalist for the Bridge Award by Arts in the Armed Forces.
Currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing-Playwrighting at Kent State, Mansfield is a member of the Dramatist Guild (NYC) and a contributing member of the United State Veterans’ Arts Alliance (Los Angeles).
Mansfield currently works as assistant vice president, content strategy and communications, at Kent State University. Prior to coming to Kent State, Mansfield completed concurrent 20-year careers as a broadcast journalist at WKYC-TV (NBC) in Cleveland and as a commissioned officer with the US Army and Ohio Army National Guard.
Frank Yonkof, BS ’12, Washington, DC, has joined the engineering team at The Washington Post as an apps product manager, supporting reader engagement and retention efforts. Since joining The Post in 2012 as an editor on the Hub, he has shaped how digital users consume the newspaper’s journalism. In 2019, he was the Hub’s lead editor on apps and part of a team of product managers, designers, engineers and traffic analysts charged with improving the user experience on existing apps and building the prototype for a new one. He played an integral role in the launch of PageBuilder Fusion last fall, providing user feedback, feature ideas and testing the new content management system.
Megan Armbruster, MA ’13, Hudson, OH, screenwriter and poet, collaborated with her husband, Moroccan director Simo Ezoubeiri, on the short film Speck of Dust, which screened in the Short Film Corner category at the Cannes Film Festival, July 12-16, 2021. The plot deals with older generations, once necessary and now in need, forced to question their worth in the face of unmet socio-emotional needs: Should our journey, our ability or our value end with our youth?
Leighann (McGivern) Bacher, BS ’13, Allison Park, PA, created a Facebook group on Jan. 31, 2021, to share COVID-19 vaccine information and tips with Pittsburgh citizens after attempting to secure vaccines for her family members in the early days of the vaccine’s release. She reached out to two women who were also posting vaccination appointment openings to their personal Facebook pages and the three decided a Facebook group would be the best way to connect people with opportunities.
The Getting Pittsburgh Vaccinated–COVID-19 Appointment Tip Page now has about 30 administrators and more than 30,000 members. Bacher and the other administrators plan to continue monitoring the group until it is no longer needed.
Ryan Collins, BS ’13, Cleveland, OH, has been promoted to associate director of admissions at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio.
Rachel O’Neill, BBA ’13, Cleveland, OH, sales engineer at Segment Inc., was recognized among the “20 in Their Twenties” class of 2021 by Crain’s Cleveland Business. O’Neill, who majored in both entrepreneurship and marketing at Kent State, has worked for the company for seven years (she left to work for another company and came back). Segment offers a data insights platform that cleanses, categorizes and contextualizes insights from customer financial transaction data.
The company’s co-founder, Rob Heiser, BBA ’02, met O’Neill when he was an advisor at Kent State and a faculty member recommended her as “a superstar.” She has been a competition judge and event volunteer for LaunchNET at Kent State.
In June 2021, O’Neill, an active member of the Junior League, also founded the Live & Give Collective, whose mission is to raise awareness and funding for charitable organizations by hosting social experiences that give back to local communities.
Emily (Cain) Peterson, BS ’13, Rollinsford, NH, showed her paintings at the Exeter Arts & Music Fest in May. She majored in fashion merchandising at Kent State and studied abroad in England, where she met her husband. After their marriage, she was a stay-at-home-mom to two young children. A self-taught artist who began painting in high school, Peterson began painting again in earnest during lockdown—using peeled dried paint, gold foil and modeling plaster to give the abstract artworks 3D texture.
She started an Instagram account to share her paintings. When people began purchasing them, she officially launched Transatlantic Chic Studios. She hopes to have an in-home studio someday and a place where people can view and purchase art and vintage goods from Europe. View her artwork at www.transatlanticchicstudios.com and on Instagram at transatlantic_chic_studios.
Victor Searcy Jr., BA ’13, Cleveland, OH, owner of Sauce the City restaurant in Ohio City, was part of a 3News special documentary called “Save Our Sauce: Celebrating Northeast Ohio’s restaurants,” which aired in March 2021 and raised money for the Ohio Restaurant Relief Fund.
Searcy started his sauce business while attending Kent State, according to a story on WKYC Studios. He called it “Vic Fries” and traveled to fairs and carnivals selling French fries with his mouth-watering sauces. He worked as a nursing home administrator until he decided to gamble on himself and build a destination foodie restaurant in what was once the Ohio City Galley.
When COVID-19 shut down restaurants, Searcy changed his strategy to focus on takeout and delivery and he transformed Sauce the City into a super-fast casual restaurant. He also started the “Feed the Nurses Challenge”—which asks users on social media to tag a local restaurant and challenge them to provide lunch for their local healthcare workers battling COVID-19 on the front lines or have other businesses pick up the tab (#FeedTheNurses).
Jeewaka Costa, BS ’14, and his wife, Pradeepa Costa, BSE ’13, Stow, OH, opened the ManiKitchen Tea Shop 2Health 4Life last September in Akron’s Kenmore neighborhood. The tiny shop, which does not serve tea, sells 120 varieties of its own brand of loose tea, along with custom-made glass teacups and teapots with the ManiKitchen logo, as well as spoon tea infusers and other tea accessories. (The ManiKitchen name is a riff on Pradeepa Costa’s nickname, Manik. She also has a master’s in public administration from The University of Akron.) They bought the property in 2016.
The couple, both of whom grew up drinking tea in Sri Lanka, opened their shop just months after Jeewaka Costa, who has a bachelor’s degree in aviation management, was laid off from his aircraft maintenance job last spring amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Costa, who used to commute to Indiana from the family’s home in Stow and long wanted to do something entrepreneurial, works with a friend of his father who has experience in the tea industry to produce the tea offsite. For years, his family had combined ancient Sri Lankan herbal medicine with infused Ceylon teas made famous by the British Empire. (Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka, gained independence from British rule in 1948.)
Jeewaka Costa hopes to land another job in airline maintenance, but he plans to keep the tea shop and employ someone to oversee it. ManiKitchen’s teas are for sale online at www.manikitchen.com.
Corey Conners, BS ’14, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, competed in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. The Canadian native placed 13th in men's golf, which featured a field of 60 competitors. Conners shot par or better in all four rounds and closed strong with a 65 in the final round to finish at -13 for the tournament.
Hattie Tracy, MPA ’14, Medina, OH, was named president and CEO of Coleman Health Services (previously known as Coleman Professional Services), effective August 7, 2021. She previously was the senior vice president of clinical operations for Coleman and was chosen by the Coleman Health Services Board from more than 100 applicants in a national search.
Tracy has nearly 20 years of behavioral health and human services experience, with more than 10 years in executive team roles. In addition to her Master of Public Policy and Administration degree from Kent State, she has a Master of Social Work from The Ohio University and is a licensed social worker in the state of Ohio.
Coleman Health Services was founded in Kent, Ohio, in 1978 and offers comprehensive behavioral health, residential, employment and supportive services. It earned the 2021 Gold Seal of Transparency from Guidestar, the world’s largest source of information on nonprofit organizations. Also in 2021, with Tracy leading the effort, it earned the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic designation from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It is one of 11 such designees in the state, which will allow Coleman to provide fully integrated health services across six Ohio counties.
Joe Chenevey, XAS ’15, BTAS ’16, Akron, OH, has been promoted to director of technology at Innis Maggiore, a full-service positioning ad agency based in Canton, Ohio. Chenevey, who joined Innis Maggiore in 2015, was a senior web developer at the agency and has built marketing websites and other digital assets for clients.
Anthony Milia, BBA ’16, Twinsburg, OH, owner of Milia Marketing LLC, was recognized as one of the “20 in Their Twenties” class of 2021 by Crain’s Cleveland Business. Milia founded his digital marketing firm five years ago and it has since grown significantly to have a client base that includes Fortune 500 companies. He was the first person from his immediate family to attend and graduate from college.
Jeannette Reyes, BS ’16, Washington, DC, broadcast journalist, is an anchor for FOX 5 Morning and Good Day DC. Reyes previously worked at the ABC-owned station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to that, she worked as a general assignment reporter for the ABC affiliate in Washington, DC, where she covered Pope Francis’ visit to the nation’s capital, among other highlights. She is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists.
Danniel Thomas-Dodd, BS ’16, MA ’18, Kent, OH, competed in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics for Team Jamaica. She finished 13th in women's shot put with a throw of 18.37 meters (60 feet, 3.23 inches), just 0.2 meters short of advancing to the finals. The Westmoreland, Jamaica, native improved upon her performances at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympics by 13 spots.
Reggie Jagers III, BS ’17, Solon, OH, competed in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. He took 19th in the men's discus throw. The Cleveland native flung the discus 61.47 meters (201 feet, 8 inches) on his final attempt of the preliminary round.
Ryan P. McNaughton, MA ’17, Niles, OH, was named president of the Syracuse University National Alumni Association, effective July 1, 2021. He will also hold a seat on the Board of Trustees during his term. He was previously chosen as president of the Northeast Ohio Syracuse University Alumni Club in 2010.
At Kent State, he earned a master’s in public relations and served as the associate director of advancement at Kent State Ashtabula, the associate director of advancement for the Division of Student Affairs, and a career counselor and testing coordinator. He also has a master’s in counselor education from Westminster College (2011) and a bachelor’s in broadcast journalism from Syracuse University (1996).
With more than a dozen years in broadcasting, he serves as vice president of government affairs for the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.
Joseph Oteng, MEd ’17, Columbus, OH, a second-year law student at the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University, started producing content on Instagram about social justice issues and anti-racism in response to the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Through infographics and short videos, he explained concepts such as racial battle fatigue, white savior complex and authentic allyship.
He has more than 13,000 Instagram followers. He creates a new set of infographics and a video at least once a month and posts content almost every day. Organizations hire him to teach social justice workshops at schools, law firms, fraternities and sororities. He gives between six and 12 lectures a month. Oteng’s “Social Justice: 101” workshop is available free on his website, www.youthful-lifeshots.com. The series includes short videos, infographics, resources and interactive worksheets.
Brenna Parker, BS ’17, Washington, DC, has joined the Biden-Harris administration in the White House to lead digital direction and strategy for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Sarah Schlosser, BFA ’17, Uniontown, OH, currently an MFA candidate in book studies at the University of Iowa’s Center for the Book, was awarded a Fulbright Study/Research grant for 2021-22. The grant will support her research in book arts to study natural dyes in India for eight months. She will document traditional dyeing practices for textiles and handmade paper and learn techniques by working alongside experts in the craft. To better support her research and learn from the people she’ll be working with, she also earned a 2021 US Department of State Critical Language Scholarship for a summer virtual intensive language and cultural program in Hindi.
Abdul Seidu, BA ’17, Cleveland, OH, wrote and directed a short film, Sing Canary, Sing!, which finished shooting in Columbus, Ohio, in June. The main character, Devon, wants to break out of the cage he grew up in and fly into new surroundings with more opportunities, but he doesn’t know how to do it. Does he continue to wrestle, something he hates and only does to please his dad? Or does he follow his heart and chase after his dreams of being a writer? Which choice will ultimately give him a better shot at getting out from East Liberty, Ohio, and solidifying a future for himself, if he even has a future to pursue?
Seidu played “Micah” in a feature film, Poser, directed by Ori Segev and Noah Dixon, that had its world premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and is getting great reviews. The film brings the Columbus indie and underground art and music scene into focus through the lens of a young woman who fakes her past to fit in.
Seidu was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and is a first-generation Ghanaian American. He graduated with a bachelor’s in theatre studies from Kent State, where he also competed in track and field. He earned an MFA in drama in the Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House graduate acting program. His sophomore film Crshd (2019), written and directed by Emily Cohn, also premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
John Cornthwait, MS ’18, Roanoke, VA, was promoted to partner and vice president of products at Firefli, a full-service digital products and services company based in Roanoke. The firm recently was named one of the “2021 Best Places to Work in Virginia.” It works with regional and global clients across industries to develop holistic digital strategies, helping them navigate website design, content marketing, search engine optimization, digital advertising and more.
Chase Johnson, BA ’18, Barberton, OH, was the Mid-American Conference Golfer of the Year as a sophomore at Kent State and was named to the MAC First Team three times. Since graduating with a degree in organizational communications, he has continued on his path to the PGA Tour. As a Korn Ferry Tour rookie in 2020, he finished runner-up at the TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes. He was profiled as a success story for First Tee-Greater Akron, whose mission is to impact the lives of kids in the Akron area by providing educational programs that build character and instill life-enhancing values through the game of golf. Johnson attended the First Tee from age 5 through high school, and he credits the program as key to the opportunities he’s had to play collegiate golf, get to the Korn Ferry Tour and prepare for the PGA Tour.
Dominic D. Wells, PhD ’18, Sandusky, OH, published From Collective Bargaining to Collective Begging: How Public Employees Win and Lose the Right to Bargain (Temple University Press, February 2021). He takes a mixed-methods approach and uses more than five decades of state-level data to analyze the expansion and restriction of rights. In his conclusion, he suggests the path forward for public sector labor unions and what policies are needed to improve employee labor relations. Wells is an assistant professor of political science and director of the Fire Administration program at Bowling Green State University.
Jess L. Callaway, MLIS ’19, Decatur, GA, clinical research librarian at The Shepherd Center in Atlanta, was awarded the 2021 President’s Award from the Medical Library Association. She has also accepted a 2021-22 Vot-ER Civic Health Fellowship, a 10-month leadership development program that aims to support, teach and train a learning community of Vot-ER users across the country. Vot-ER is a voter registration effort that’s part of a larger movement pushing medical professionals to consider the “civic health” of their patients and tackle the social conditions that make patients sick—like hunger, drug addiction and homelessness. It’s taken on new urgency as the pandemic has curbed traditional in-person voter registration efforts and people caught COVID-19 while waiting in long lines to vote in 2020—illustrating the link between public policy failures and death.
Julian Edelman, BIS ’19, Boston, MA, former quarterback for Kent State and three-time Super Bowl winner with the New England Patriots, retired in April 2021. When he retired, he was ranked second in postseason receiving yards and receptions and held Super Bowl records for punt returns and first-half receptions in a single game, with seven. He was the receiving yards leader during his victories in all three Super Bowls and was named Most Valuable Player in the last of those victories in 2018.
Samory Uiki Fraga, BA ’19, Kent, OH, competed in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics for the Brazil team. He leaped 7.88 meters (25 feet, 10.24 inches) on his first attempt in the men's long jump. The Porto Alegre, Brazil, native placed 16th.
Jeff Franks, MPA ’19, CER6 ’19, Canton, OH, is executive director of Bridge Point Community Services, a faith-based community improvement organization that is launching learning centers at three sites in public school districts (Canton, Osnaburg and Sandy Valley) to give elementary and middle school public school students access to homework assistance, technology and computers. They are taking referrals from teachers and will do background checks on volunteers who help with schoolwork.
Kripani Patel, MPH ’19, Mashpee, MA, was named board member of the Mashpee Board of Health. Patel, who earned a master’s degree in public health with a social and behavioral science concentration from Kent State, highlighted her public health education in seeking the position at age 26. She is a full-time substitute teacher at Mashpee Middle-High School and teaches a medical terminology course.
Ray Rodriguez, BFA ’19, Parma, OH, presented the Wanderer exhibition from May 29 through June 26 at the Negative Space Gallery at Cleveland’s Asian Town Center. He started the series during the pandemic and, according to an article in Cleveland Scene, describes it as “a representation of the world I started building while I couldn’t fully participate in ours.” He says he finds inspiration “in mythology, in the subconscious and in dreams.”
A native of Puerto Rico, Rodriguez studied drawing and painting for two years at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce. He moved to the United States and finished his studies at Kent State, where he won a Vincent J. Stark Scholarship.
Pictured: “Enchantress” by Ray Rodriguez
Ray Spangler, AAB ’19, Nashville, TN, was promoted to vice president at Barge Design Solutions Inc. in April 2021. He joined Barge in January 2021 as the firm’s chief technology officer after 25 years with Verizon Wireless. Barge is an engineering and architecture firm with diverse in-house multidisciplinary practice areas. The employee-owned company is 400+ people strong and serves clients nationwide from multiple US locations. Spangler is a member of the Greater Nashville Technology Council.
Omid Tavakoli, MFA ’19, Cleveland, OH, is a conceptual artist and curator whose work revolves around themes related to identity, gender, media, land use, protest and pop culture. His mother was African American, and his father was born and raised in Iran, so both the Arab Spring and Black Lives Matter protests inspired his artwork.
His most recent series have explored cultural identity and focused on his African American and Iranian roots, given contemporary cultural contexts in both America and Iran from a feminist perspective.
Tavakoli has exhibited throughout the United States and has received numerous juried awards. He recently received The Satellite Fund Emergency Relief Grant, Neighborhood Connections Grant and Collinwood Rising Grant to reopen, design and maintain the Waterloo Sculpture Garden in Northeast Ohio.
In April 2021, he was profiled in Ideastream’s Equity in Art series, which aims to amplify the work of artists of color living and working in Northeast Ohio.