2000s
Byron Demery, BA ’01, MPA ’03, Lakewood, OH, published his second book, An Evolved, Professing Christian Man, in December 2020. According to Demery, the book details how he was able to persevere through a challenging 24-month period in his life. Through this experience he gained a greater appreciation for life and the meaning of love—and his relationship with God was strengthened. The book is available on Amazon and everywhere books are sold. For more information visit his website.
Michele Nicole “Niki” Frenchko, MPA ’02, Warren, OH, wrote, “I was recently elected as Trumbull County commissioner.”
Katy Smith, BBA ’02, New Franklin, OH, has been named business editor for The Columbus Dispatch, starting in January 2021, and will continue as editor of Columbus CEO magazine. Smith will lead an integrated business desk, with the goal of leveraging the assets of the Dispatch and CEO teams to produce content across print and digital, and daily and monthly platforms. She interned at the Dispatch in 2002 during college. After graduation, she worked for Suburban News Publications, covering Columbus suburbs as a reporter and editor. She then worked for Business First, first as a copy editor and then, from 2013 to 2018, as managing editor for print. She worked for a short time in the creative department for the Central Ohio Transit Authority before coming to CEO magazine as editor in 2019.
Jarrod Tudor, MBA ’02, EdS ’02, PhD ’05, MPA ’12, Columbus, OH, was named dean of campus and community relations for Ohio University’s Lancaster campus, starting Nov. 2, 2020. Previously, he was the dean and chief administrative officer of the Wayne College Regional Campus System of The University of Akron. He served as interim dean and chief administrative officer of Kent State at Geauga and the Regional Academic Center in Twinsburg, taught courses at Kent State in various departments for 18 years and was a member of the Faculty Senate, serving on the executive committee for three years.
Jason Watkins, BBA ’02, MA ’12, Alliance, OH, was elevated from manager to principal at the Dover, Ohio, office of Novogradac, a national accounting and consulting enterprise that specializes in affordable housing, community development, historic preservation and renewable energy, with 51 principals in more than 25 cities nationwide.
Watkins specializes in the federal and state new market tax credit incentive, the opportunity zone incentive, the federal and state historic tax credit world, and the federal and state renewable energy tax credit community. Watkins joined Novogradac in 2012 and works extensively on financial statement audits, tax return preparation, cost certification audits, compliance reporting and consulting services. He is also a speaker at the company’s new market tax credit preconference workshops, a contributor to the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits and has been heavily involved with the Novogradac-hosted Opportunity Zones Working Group. Watkins is licensed in Ohio as a certified public accountant.
Ben Curtis, BS ’03, Hudson, OH, (pictured above right) launched a new golf-centric weekly podcast, Clubs & Corks Golf Podcast, with co-host Luke Taylor (pictured above left) on Feb. 2, 2021. The weekly podcast includes humor, stories, commentary, travel tips, course reviews, giveaways and insider tips to improve one’s golf game—and features interviews with a range of well-regarded golf professionals and industry leaders from the golf and wine world. The podcast can be found on Buzzsprout.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Overcast, and it also utilizes the Patreon membership platform to give listeners access to bonus content, golf instruction, reviews and more.
Curtis, a former Kent State University All-American golfer, competed on the PGA Tour for over 13 years with wins at the British Open, Valero Open, Booz Allen and 84 Lumber Classic tournaments while also representing the US in the Ryder Cup. He currently operates the Ben Curtis Golf Academy in Hudson, Ohio. He and his wife, Candace, established the Ben Curtis Foundation to help underprivileged kids in the Greater Akron area.
Co-host Taylor, a former NCAA Division 1 athlete at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has a master’s degree in public relations and advertising from DePaul University, where he coached the men’s tennis team. He owns and operates Traderman Distributors, Ohio’s leading boutique wine distributor.
Jennifer Porter, BBA ‘03, Milford, OH, has been appointed chief operating officer of the newly reorganized company Commonwealth Hotels Inc (CHI) and Commonwealth Hotel Collection (CHC). She previously served as vice president of operations at Commonwealth Hotel Collection. Prior to joining the company, she spent 25 years in the hospitality industry in many roles, most recently as vice president of operations at Winegardner and Hammons/Pyramid Hotels and, earlier, as general manager of multiple full-service hotels with Marriott, Hilton, IHG and independent/boutique hotels. Porter’s experience spans lifestyle, all-suite and conference style hotels in urban, suburban, airport and resort locations across the country.
Courtney Mahan, BBA ‘03, Bristolville, OH, has been named chief financial officer of Ferry Industries Inc., producer of rotational molding machinery for the global plastics industry. She had been with Ferry for three years, as accounting manager and then controller. She earned an MBA from Cleveland State University in 2010.
Melissa A. Davis, BS ’04, MS ’10, Chardon, OH, has collaborated with Megan E. Griffiths-Ward, PhD, and David Ward, PhD, on the recently published book Problem Plants of Ohio (The Kent State University Press, 2020), available on Amazon and at The Kent State University Press.
The book provides information on the identification and control of nonnative plant species formally listed as invasive or prohibited noxious weeds in Ohio. In addition, it treats many additional species considered a nuisance in gardens, landscaping or natural settings. The authors include basic information on control measures and suggestions for native alternatives.
Davis is a botany instructor in Kent State’s Department of Biological Sciences, horticulture facilities director at Kent State’s Herrick Conservatory and collections manager of Kent State’s Tom S. and Miwako K. Cooperrider Herbarium.
Griffiths-Ward is an adjunct professor in Kent State’s biological sciences department and has studied plant-plant interactions with a focus on understanding the mechanisms by which disturbance and competition impact plant communities.
Ward is the J. Arthur and Margaret Hatton Herrick Endowed Chair in Plant Conservation Biology at Kent State. His research interests lie in the ecology of plant species redistributions, including the study of both invasive and encroaching plant species, primarily trees. He also studies the effects of herbivory by large mammals (such as elephants) on the population biology, community ecology and conservation of plant populations. He teaches courses on plant ecology and invasion biology and co-leads (with Griffiths-Ward) student field courses in South Africa biennially.
Shaun W. Sarrett, BSE ’04, Beckley, WV, is expected to join the Los Angeles Chargers as assistant offensive line coach. Sarrett had been with the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2012 as an offensive assistant. He was promoted to assistant offensive line coach in 2019 and offensive line coach in 2019.
Prior to his time in the NFL, Sarrett spent time as an offensive quality control coach for Duke University and got his start in the college ranks at Marshall University as a graduate assistant. He was an offensive guard at Kent State and earned the nickname “Sweet Feet” after a teammate noticed that he had above average footwork for the position.
George Barlow, BBA ’06, MSA ’07, Canton, OH, was elevated to partner at the Dover, Ohio, office of Novogradac, a national accounting and consulting enterprise that specializes in affordable housing, community development, historic preservation and renewable energy, with 67 partners in more than 25 cities nationwide.
Barlow specializes in new markets tax credits, historic tax credits, renewable energy tax credits, the opportunity zones incentive, and other state tax credits and incentives. He has consulted on more than 400 tax-credit transactions with cumulative development financing exceeding $5 billion. He works with real estate developers, community development entities, syndicators, lenders and investors on the complex structuring, financing and syndication of tax credit and opportunity zone transactions. He also advises on tax and regulatory matters in addition to providing traditional audit, cost certification and tax services. Barlow is licensed as a certified public accountant in Ohio.
Rob Bryant, BBA ’07, Strasburg, OH, was elevated to partner at the Dover, Ohio, office of Novogradac, a national accounting and consulting enterprise that specializes in affordable housing, community development, historic preservation and renewable energy, with 67 partners in more than 25 cities nationwide.
Bryant specializes in consulting services for new markets tax credits, renewable energy tax credits, historic tax credits and opportunity zone transactions. Bryant has provided consulting and financial modeling services for more than 450 transactions, exceeding $11 billion in new markets tax credits allocation. He also has experience with financial statement audits, tax return preparation, final cost certification audits, cost segregation studies and transaction document review services. He is licensed as a certified public accountant in Ohio.
Seth Runser, BBA ’07, North Lawrence, OH, has been promoted to the new role of chief operating officer for ABF Freight, effective Feb. 1, 2021, and will become ABF president on July 1, 2021. Runser joined the company in 2007 as a management trainee in Cleveland and moved around the country serving in various roles before relocating to the corporate headquarters in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Most recently, he was vice president of linehaul operations for ABF, which is a leading less-than-truckload carrier, operating over 240 service centers across North America.
Bassam M. Deeb, PhD ’08, Buffalo, NY, president of Trocaire College, was awarded a 2020 Buffalo Business First C-Level Executives Award by Harter Secrest & Emery LLP and Northwest Bank, recognizing western New York’s most effective business leaders during a challenging year shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lindsay McCoy, BS ’08, Hudson, OH, is a Summit County native and an anchor and reporter for WFMJ-TV, the NBC affiliate in Youngstown. She started her news career in radio news at 1590 WAKR in Akron. She also blogs for Northeast Ohio Parent magazine. When she’s not running around with a camera and a tripod, she’s playing with her 1-year-old daughter, Allison.
Pawan Verma, MBA ’08, Short Hills, NJ, joined MetLife as executive vice president and chief information officer, effective Nov. 9, 2020. Previously, he was the chief information and customer experience officer at Foot Locker, where he was responsible for leading a 4,000-member team to transform the technology, data and supply chain ecosystem. Verma was recently recognized by Forbes with the CIO Innovation Award for his digital and data work that yielded revenue augmenting innovation.
Prior to Foot Locker, he served as vice president of digital marketing technology for Target, where he managed mobile and digital development, data, cloud engineering and architecture. He also has prior e-commerce and mobile experience from roles with Convergys Corp. and Verizon Wireless.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Dr. Hari Singh Gour University and a master’s degree in computer application and software engineering from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in India.
Derek Hickman, BGS ’09, Aurora, OH, was installed as the senior pastor at The Church in Aurora on Dec. 1, 2019. He received a graduate degree in theology from Ashland Theological Seminary in 2013. His pastoral duties began as a youth and associate minister in Newcomerstown, Ohio. He also served as a senior pastor in Ashland, Ohio, and most recently as the senior pastor at the First United Methodist Church in Ravenna, Ohio. Rev. Hickman was ordained as an elder in the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church in 2018. He is married to Jenna, who is a teacher at Miller Elementary School in Aurora, and they have two young children.