2000s
Three generations tenured at Kent State: Left, Byron Dressler, director of the university’s first Computer Center, pictured sitting at a computer in Kent State University Summer News, Aug. 12, 1965. Right, Jane Dressler, Professor Emerita of Voice, and Ginnie Dressler, digital projects librarian and associate professor at Kent State University Libraries
Virginia “Ginnie” Dressler, BA ’01, MLIS ’07, Kent, OH, digital projects librarian and associate professor at Kent State University Libraries, received tenure in summer 2021. Dressler, who began working at the Kent Campus in April 2014, is the third generation in her family to be tenured at Kent State.
Her mother, Jane Dressler, DMA, Professor Emerita of Voice, was tenured in the Glauser School of Music, where she taught voice (soprano) and music theory from August 1987 to June 2020. She served as interim director of the school from August 2017 through June 2019 and retired as a full professor in 2020.
Her grandfather, Byron Dressler, taught in the mathematics department from fall 1948 to January 1978 and earned tenure in 1954. He also was director of the university’s first Computer Center, which was established in 1962 or 1963. Located in Merrill Hall, it was used primarily for research.
“He died in 1981, when I was a year old, so I don’t really remember him,” Ginnie Dressler says. “But I have often wondered what he would have thought about my career path. It’s been a joke in our immediate family that there has been a Dressler on the books at Kent State since the late 1940s.”
Jennifer Weed, Med ’01, Chicago, IL, was named the new president of the University of Dayton Alumni Association Board in July 2021. She will serve a three-year term.
Weed is the vice president of education at CCIM Institute. Formerly known as Commercial Investment Real Estate Institute of the National Association of Realtors, it is the professional certification and educational resource for commercial and investment real estate. Her professional experience includes roles with the Strategic Account Management Association, the American Bar Association, DePaul University and Xavier University. She earned a law degree from Loyola University Chicago.
Jason Dorfman, BGS ’02, Aliso Viejo, CA, is the chief business officer of Betterbrand Inc., founder of the W Supplements Company and co-founder of CanDo, maker of the Keto Krisp line of protein bars. He and his family live in Orange County, California.
Kimberly (Crowley) Patton, BA ’02, Cleveland, OH, has been promoted to associate director of clinical services at the Summit County Alcohol, Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services (ADM) Board, as of September 2021. In this role, Patton facilitates planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of contract agencies’ clinical and support services across Summit County.
Previously, Patton was the addiction, treatment and training coordinator for the board, where she monitored both substance use disorder treatment and prevention programming. Before joining the ADM board, she worked at Northcoast Behavioral Healthcare for 11 years, her most recent role as its director of social services.
In addition to a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Kent State, she also holds a Master of Science in social administration from Case Western Reserve University and an advanced chemical dependency certification from Columbus State Community College.
Christine M. Rich, BA ’02, Hudson, OH, wrote, “Did you know that 80% of people living with autoimmune disease in the US are women? As one of those women living with an autoimmune disease since I was 17, I found this statistic staggering. My debut memoir, Chronic (New Degree Press) was published on August 30, 2021, about my experience living with a chronic illness called Crohn’s disease. I decided to write this book because I spent many years trying to hide from and deny the fear, anger and sadness I felt because of my illness. Through raw and personal stories and insights, I candidly share my journey of living with and eventually learning to befriend my less-than-glamorous, oftentimes invisible, chronic illness.
“Those insights include how women insist they’re ‘fine’ even when they aren’t, why physicians should consistently discuss mental health with their chronically ill patients and what the power of radical acceptance and self-love can provide. Chronic encourages readers to shift their perspective of chronic illness from one of shame and fear to one of acceptance and love. My hope is that by sharing my story other women feel empowered to share their own and realize they’re not alone.” See www.christinemrich.com.
Caryl Church Jesseph, BA ’03, MA ’06, Willoughby, OH, joined Mind Body Align as a curriculum and education developer and mindful educator. Mind Body Align teaches mindful social emotional learning (SEL) and workplace programs. Mindful SEL improves learning for 90.5% of students including 70% of at-risk students. Mind Body Align also provides mindfulness education to businesses as part of employee resources.
Along with 15 years of experience in public schools as a K-12 art educator, Jesseph is also a certified yoga teacher, published writer, exhibited artist and winner of the Northeast Ohio Outstanding Art Educator award and the Carrie Nordlund award. She complements her work with modalities rooted in storytelling, visual art, movement, play and ecological connection. Learn more at www.mindbodyalign.com.
Jennifer Smith, BS ’03, Hilliard, OH, was selected as chief operating officer for Lifeline of Ohio, effective July 2021. Lifeline of Ohio is an organ procurement organization serving 78 hospitals throughout 38 counties in Central and Southeastern Ohio and two counties in West Virginia.
Smith began her career as a medical technologist in transfusion medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, followed by two years of service as a laboratory technologist II in quality control for the American Red Cross in Columbus. Since 2007, she has served as manager and then director of Lifeline of Ohio’s quality and regulatory affairs department, establishing herself as a leader for regulatory guidelines and compliance standards on both a state and national level. She has extensive experience in quality auditing with regulatory agencies and serves on numerous quality councils to shape industry best practices.
Warrior Saber Event: (Left to right) Staff Sargeant Rodney Wentz, Sargeant Harold Wentz, Shawn Wentz, Sargeant Rachel Dillon, Robert Jones, corporal, Portage County Sheriffs Association
Shawn M. Wentz, BS ’03, Denver, CO, director of Warrior Saber, assisted the Kent State gymnastics team at their Military Appreciation Meet on Jan. 28, 2022. Warrior Saber is a 501c3 organization with a mission to locate veterans who are still serving their community and to honor them in front of others.
At the meet, he presented the Warrior Saber Award of Merit and a saber to Rachel Rydbom Dillon, a Northeast Ohio veteran who served in the US Marine Corps, for her service to the Portage County community as a corrections officer for the past 21 years.
Wentz, a former Kent State student-athlete, says it was an honor for him to celebrate all veterans (including his two family members pictured above, who served in Vietnam) in front of student-athletes at the event.
Randi Woods, BA ’03, Akron, OH, established a small-batch product line, Goods, in 2016, which has grown into a successful small Black-owned business primarily through word-of-mouth. Goods offers an array of organic plant-based products, including body creams and butters, natural deodorant, beard and skin oils made for all skin and hair textures, tooth powders, bug repellent and a clay detox mask, among other products. All are free of toxic ingredients and fillers. Learn more at the company's website.
Marisa “Risa” August Heidt, BA ’04, Golden, CO, triathlete, ironwoman, wrote an article in Pituitary World News in July 2020 about receiving a diagnosis in 2018 of a pituitary tumor that caused acromegaly, a rare disorder that occurs when the pituitary gland produces too much growth hormone. After surgery and treatment in 2019, some of the tumor remains inoperable and she still deals with complications from the surgery. Certified as a Gestalt practitioner and in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, Heidt has developed workshops and creative practices to help others going through similar life-altering medical diagnoses. In 2021, she rode her bike on a 1,845-mile journey down the West Coast from Canada to Mexico to raise awareness of rare pituitary diseases (often overlooked or misdiagnosed). She plans to tackle the EuroVelo 6 in Europe in 2022. Learn more at www.featherandsagecoaching.com and on Facebook @risaunleashed.
Crystal M. C. Davis, BA ’04, Twinsburg, OH, received the 2021 Great Lakes Leadership Award from the Great Lakes Protection Fund in recognition of her efforts to protect the health of the Great Lakes basin and the people who live in the region. One of six people recognized for trailblazing efforts on behalf of the Great Lakes in 2021, she is vice president of policy and strategic engagement for the Alliance for the Great Lakes. (She was previously federal relations director for Kent State University.)
Davis’ approach of focusing on the needs of people who live in the Great Lakes region is prompting both environmentalists and policymakers to look at water quality issues in a new way. Her approach focuses on fair and equitable access to the benefits that come with restoring the ecological health of the system—like access to clean drinking water and the removal of toxins from the lakes and surrounding waterways.
She spearheaded the development of Shut Up and Listen, a 2018 report that summarizes what was learned from community conversations in the Cleveland area and guides those who want to address community concerns.
Prior to joining the Alliance, Davis served as federal relations director for Kent State’s Office of Government & Community Relations in Washington, DC, where she established the university’s office on Capitol Hill.
Jonathan Junker, BS ’04, BArc ’05, Bainbridge Island, WA, designs upscale homes in the Seattle, Washington, area since moving there after graduating from Kent State. He also branched out into custom lighting for hotels, museums and office buildings around the world as the co-owner of Graypants, a company with offices in Seattle and Amsterdam. Junker and a former partner established the company in 2007 to produce laser-cut lamps from corrugated cardboard.
While at Graypants, he collaborated on transforming an old, abandoned garage on Vashon Island into a glowing lakeside cabin, which earned him the American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Washington state. He also won the Millennial Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2016 from the U.S. Small Business Administration, in recognition of his achievements at Graypants and its partnership with the Dutch government for product distribution.
In 2019 he sold his share in the lighting studio and now works in his own creative office on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound.
Ryan D. Andrews, MS ’05, MA ’05, Harwich, MA, is an advocate for sustainable food systems, a dietitian, yoga instructor, and strength and conditioning specialist. His new e-book, Swole Planet: Building a Better Body and a Better Earth, is a guide to help people build a body that’s functional and fit, while building a planet that’s more sustainable and equitable.
Andrews was a competitive body builder from 1996-2001. His graduate degrees from Kent State are in nutrition and exercise physiology, and he completed his training to become a registered dietitian at Johns Hopkins Medicine. He studied sustainable food systems at Columbia University and volunteers on sustainable farms and with nonprofit food recovery organizations. He’s been teaching at SUNY’s Purchase College since 2018. For details, see www.ryandandrews.com. Discounts on the book are available for farmers, teachers, dietitians or those in the nonprofit sector.
James M. Hill, MLIS ’05, Chillicothe, OH, director of the Chillicothe and Ross County Library, has been named the 2021 Librarian of the Year by the Ohio Library Council. This prestigious award honors a librarian whose recent accomplishments have impacted the library profession and library service to the community.
During the pandemic and under Hill's leadership, the library developed a check-in program to monitor elderly and isolated individuals. He added Chromebooks for patron checkout, extended Wi-Fi access and created a telehealth room at the Main Library. He and his staff also developed an expansion of the outreach department and a new bike-lending program, among other projects.
In response to the drug epidemic in Ross County, Hill forged a partnership with other county agencies to bring a peer recovery supporter to the library. This person provides an essential service to the county, helping people navigate treatment options and finding resources to help.
In addition, Hill has assisted six staff members in obtaining their Master of Library and Information Science degrees and/or professional certifications.
Stephanie Sweany, BS ’05, Canton, OH, was appointed executive director at Stark County Hunger Task Force. She has been with the organization since 2017, most recently as assistant director. Founded in 1981, the nonprofit serves 34,000 Stark County residents each month through a network of about 40 food pantries and 12 Backpack for Kids programs.
Sweany is engaged in various community activities, including the Canton Kindness Coalition, which she founded in 2018. She is the vice president of Kent State’s Stark County Alumni chapter, and she received the Kent State University Alumni Association’s Advocacy Award in 2020.
Kate (Leishman) Yancho, BFA ’05, Kalamazoo, MI, was appointed to a three-year term at the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in September 2021. The MCACA is Michigan’s key conduit for arts and cultural information, grant funding and more. Yancho continues to serve as the executive director of Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers, a 501c3 nonprofit professional modern dance company celebrating its 41st anniversary in Kalamazoo.
Darren Byler, BA ’06, New Westminster, British Columbia, published Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City (Duke University Press, February 2022). Byler, a sociocultural anthropologist and assistant professor at Simon Fraser University’s School for International Studies, based his book on two years of ethnographic fieldwork among Uyghur and Han internal male migrants.
In the book, he theorizes about the contemporary Chinese colonization of the Uyghur Muslim minority group in the northwest autonomous region of Xinjiang, showing how it has led to what he calls terror capitalism—a configuration of ethno-racialization, surveillance and mass detention that in this case promotes settler colonialism. He focuses on the experiences of young Uyghur men—who are the primary target of state violence—and how they develop masculinities and homosocial friendships to protect themselves against gendered, ethnoracial and economic violence.
Theodore Ferringer Jr., MArc ’06, MUD ’06, Cleveland, OH, was promoted to senior associate at Bialosky Cleveland in 2020. A member of Crain’s Cleveland Business 2019 Forty Under 40 class and a recipient of the AIA Ohio 2021 Emerging Professional Award, Ferringer is a licensed architect and recognized community leader. In addition to advocating for equitable design excellence through numerous community boards, he has served his profession through the American Institute of Architects at the local and national levels, notably as the AIA National Associates Committee Chair in 2016. His projects include Cleveland Metroparks Edgewater Beach House, the Schofield Building Restoration and the co-located Cleveland Public Library Walz Branch/Karam Senior Housing project. He is an active member of the Kent State University Alumni Association.
Tamie J. Jovanelly, PhD ’06, Rome, GA, is the award-winning and bestselling author of Iceland Geology: Tectonics, Volcanics, and Glacial Features (Wiley, 2020). Her book captures the island’s natural beauty and enhances it with detailed descriptions linking the relationships among structure, process and time to the island’s evolution. Jovanelly, a geologist, translates peer-reviewed scientific literature to provide the reader with the most up-to-date research discussing interesting, and sometimes debated, geological theories regarding an island splitting in half due to plate tectonic motion.
Sarah Shendy, BA ’06, Cuyahoga Falls, OH, was nominated as a Top Cop in recognition of her dedication as a Copley police officer to Copley and to Summit County. The office of Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh nominated her.
Shendy, who serves as the administrator for Ohio’s Office of Law Enforcement, was asked to write about recruitment for Police1’s 22 on 2022: A police leadership playbook. The playbook offers solutions from law enforcement and criminal justice experts for 22 ongoing and emerging issues facing police leaders and officers in 2022.
She also coordinated a Women in Law Enforcement Roundtable event for the Office of Law Enforcement Recruitment on March 8, 2022, at Cuyahoga Community College. The free event was a public forum where women leaders discussed opportunities and challenges in law enforcement careers.
Patricia Lovell, MLS ’07, Canton, OH, presented a short film, “Miles to Go,” on June 10, 2021, at the Lions Lincoln Theatre in Massillon, Ohio. The film—which she wrote, directed and produced—was inspired by her own running experiences. It notes the inequalities between men and women who jog for recreation and fitness or who run in competitions. She hopes to enter it in the Cleveland International Film Festival, as well as other festivals. She also plans to post it on YouTube.
An avid runner, Lovell started Girls on the Run of Stark County in 2010 and served as director for five years. The group’s goal is to inspire young girls to be happy, healthy and confident while creatively incorporating running into the program.
Lovell taught high school English for eight years, then worked as a librarian for GlenOak High School and later Marlington High School before retiring at age 62.
Hallie Crouch, BS ’08, MArc ’09, Akron, OH, has been promoted to associate principal at Bialosky Cleveland and is the first nontraditional practitioner to hold the title. She contributes and advises on many dimensions of the practice, including business development, marketing, strategic planning, HR, brand identity, firm culture, policies and programs. She has presented on the topics of equity and alternative careers at design schools and architecture conferences, including the 2019 National Women’s Leadership Summit. She is a frequent juror of student work at her alma mater.
Emilia Sykes, BA ’08, Akron, OH, stepped down in December 2021 after three years as leader of the Ohio House Democratic Caucus. In January, she announced her candidacy for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, writing on Twitter, “I’m running for Congress to advocate on behalf of Ohio’s families. I’ve made it my mission to keep jobs in our state and to expand opportunities for all in NE Ohio—not just the wealthy and well-connected.” Learn more at www.emiliasykesforcongress.com/.
Sheila R. Feaster, DPM ’09, Huntington, WV, a board-certified, fellowship-trained podiatrist, has joined Marshall Health and Cabell Huntington Hospital, a member of Mountain Health Network. She will also serve as an assistant professor at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.
Prior to joining Marshall Health, Feaster served as a provider for an OSF Medical Group specialty clinic in Monmouth, Illinois. She specializes in foot, ankle and wound care.
Jordan Hamrick, BBA ’09, TT ’09, Atwater, OH, was recognized as a 2021 NextGen to Watch by Family Business Magazine. He represents the third generation of leadership at Hamrick Packaging Systems, a manufacturer of secondary, or end-of-line, packaging equipment. Its clientele includes companies as large as Kraft, Heinz and Coca-Cola and as small as craft breweries.
He began working summer shifts at what was then known as Hamrick Manufacturing while in high school, mopping floors, cleaning toilets and picking up parts from local distributors. After graduating from Kent State with degrees in business management and marketing, he started working full time in the family business in 2010. His first role was in marketing, then sales and he is now president.
“Since I started, we’ve gone from 22 employees to 49 and have strengthened every aspect of our operation,” Hamrick says. “I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish as a family-owned-and-operated business for the last 46 years, and even prouder that we’re doing it in the right way.”
Paul Rossetti, BS ’09, MArc ’11, MBA ’11, Kent, OH, has been promoted to associate at Bialosky Cleveland. A veteran of the US Air Force Reserve, he joined the firm in 2016 as an architectural designer with specialties in virtual reality and building information modeling. Notable projects include MAGNET, Centric and the Belle Oaks mixed use development.