Spring/Summer 2021 Class Notes
1940s
1940s
Students named Alita Boecker the first Chestnut Burr Queen in 1941.
This KSU Instagram post highlighted Alita (Boecker) Neff-Dupuis’s 100th birthday on February 17, 2021.
Alita (Boecker) Neff-Dupuis, BA ’43, Beverly Hills, FL, turned 100 years young on Feb. 17, 2021. Since her children wouldn’t be able to celebrate with her because of the pandemic, one of her daughters, Susan Grace, reached out to see if Kent State could give her a surprise Happy Birthday greeting.
She sent along a current photo and a clipping from a newspaper dated Jan. 25, 1941, which announced that Alita Boecker, a Kent State sophomore from Melrose, Massachusetts, had been named the first Chestnut Burr Queen.
After digging into Kent State’s digital collections we discovered that, in addition to being selected queen by more than 800 student votes, she also had been quite involved in extracurricular activities—as manager of the women’s modern dance club, treasurer of Moulton Hall dormitory, secretary of the art club, chairman of the decorations committee for the Sophomore Sweater Swagger dance and more.
She majored in history and government and became a librarian after graduation. She also met her first husband, William G. Neff, at Kent State in 1940. He enlisted in the US Army shortly after Pearl Harbor and later transferred to the US Air Force. They married in 1944 and had five children. The family moved to Miami, Florida, after he left the service in 1957. Although they divorced in 1969 and later both remarried, they remained lifelong friends. (William Neff died in May 2014 at age 95.)
According to her daughter, her mother remains as active as she was during college: “She still stays connected with her social club friends and remains engaged with her reading, gardening, fabric arts, computer activities, etc. Mom is thriving, living independently and enjoying life to the fullest. Staying physically and mentally active has kept her young at heart and of spirit.”
On her birthday, Kent State posted birthday greetings on Facebook and Instagram.
Martin E. Gordon, BS ’44, St. Louis, wrote, “I am hoping to inspire young students who may be wondering whether their studies will ever become fruitful. I was a day student applying for numerous applications for medical school, yet I suddenly became the first Kent State University student to be admitted to the Yale School of Medicine.
“At 99 years of age, I wish to urge students to recognize the virtues of the Kent State valued scholastics and recall that your future rests on diligent focus, generated within. The background I received as a pre-med student contributed immensely to that Yale admission and then followed a career in academic teaching. I hope to stimulate others into the exciting and ever-expanding biosciences.”
Dr. Gordon is a renowned gastroenterologist and expert in travel medicine. He served as clinical professor of medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and emeritus chairman and lifetime trustee at Cushing/Whitney Medical Library. During his medical career, he diagnosed patients with mysterious gastrointestinal symptoms and provided fellow physicians with guides to diagnoses and cures via educational materials, lectures and exhibits. He has authored many scientific publications—which focus on clinical solutions—and has received awards for his medical films and other efforts.
His new e-book, Plants R Cures: An Almanac of Plants and Medicine (LifeRich Publishing, 2019), explores the intersection of plants and medicine, now and in the past, while also offering a practical guide to the use of herbs to treat a large variety of ailments. The book also features anecdotal patient cases from his storied practice and world travels.
Dr. Gordon continues as a senior attending physician at the Free Clinic in University City, Missouri, teaching medical, nursing and pharmacy students, while treating (with translators) many international immigrants.
1950s
1950s
Courtesy of Cleveland Jewish News
Ellis Lewin, attended Kent State 1952–1953, Pepper Pike, OH, celebrated his bar mitzvah on Jan. 26, 2021—75 years after missing it while imprisoned as a 13-year-old in Auschwitz. His family and friends gathered virtually for the event, which he hadn’t thought about doing until he was confined to bed last year.
Lewin’s mother and sister were murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz, and Lewin was liberated from Dachau in April 1945 by the 3rd Armored Division of the US Army. Then 14, Lewin was separated from his father and brought to the United States by the Jewish Children’s Bureau with nine other children and placed at the home of Winifred Freyer in Cleveland. He studied to be a concert pianist like his father.
In 1949, Lewin learned his father was in a displaced persons camp. Freyer paid for his passage to Cleveland, and Lewin relocated to East Cleveland to live with his father, graduating from Shaw High School, then commuting daily to the Kent Campus for two years. In 1953, he was drafted by the US Army and served as a tank commander in the 3rd Armored Division in the Korean War.
Upon returning in 1955, he married, became a businessman and raised his family in Cleveland Heights and Chester Township. For 20 years, he spoke about his Holocaust experience to high school students across Ohio and through Face to Face, the Holocaust education program then run by Congregation Shaarey Tikvah in Beachwood. (For more information, see article from Cleveland Jewish News.)
Lou Holtz, BS ’59, Honorary Doctor of Law ’94, Orlando, FL, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Dec. 3, 2020. This prestigious award is the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Holtz is recognized as one of the greatest football coaches of all time for his accomplishments on the gridiron. He is also a philanthropist and author.
After growing up in a small town in West Virginia, Holtz attended Kent State and was the first member of his family to enroll in college. He played football, studied history and joined the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. For the next seven years, he served as an officer in the United States Army Reserves.
Upon graduating from Kent State, Holtz began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Iowa. He landed his first head coaching job at the College of William & Mary, leading the team to the Southern Conference title and an appearance in the Tangerine Bowl.
Over the next 35 years, Holtz led successful college football teams, including North Carolina State, the University of Arkansas, the University of Minnesota and the University of South Carolina. He also coached the New York Jets during a 13-game stint in professional football. He compiled an impressive overall record of 249-132-7. Most notably, Holtz earned an outstanding 100-30-2 record in 11 seasons at the University of Notre Dame. His 1988 team earned a perfect 12-0 record and was crowned national champion. Most importantly, he inspired generations of young athletes along the way.
Since his retirement from coaching, Holtz has authored several books and contributed to ESPN and CBS as a sports analyst. He continues to give back to his community through two charities, the Holtz Charitable Foundation and the Holtz’s Heroes Foundation. Holtz has received honorary doctorates from the University of Notre Dame, the University of South Carolina, Trine University in Indiana and the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008, the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and the Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame, among many other accolades.
1960s
1960s
Stanley Sipka, BS ’64, MEd ’74, Tallmadge, OH, wrote, “I taught at Cuyahoga Falls High School for 33 years, retiring in 1997. I just had my book, Memoirs of a Shop Teacher, published by Balboa Press. The book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Balboa Press.”
Sue Mossman, BA ’69, Pasadena, CA, executive director of Pasadena Heritage, received the California Preservation Lifetime Achievement award in an online ceremony on Oct. 21, 2020. The award honors outstanding preservation efforts.
Mossman has worked for Pasadena Heritage for 41 of the organization’s 43 years, starting as a volunteer. She has served as the organization’s executive director for the past 26 years. Prior to that, she served as program director, development director, volunteer coordinator, newsletter editor and in other positions with the organization. The organization works to identify, preserve and protect the historic, architectural and cultural resources of Pasadena through advocacy and education.
Mossman is well known in the community as a champion of preserving historic resources, a member of various advisory bodies, a popular speaker and a passionate and effective preservation advocate. The early days of the organization focused on Old Pasadena, the Colorado Street Bridge, the Civic Center and city neighborhoods.
Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she traveled widely with her family, spending years in southern France, Bangkok and Rome. She graduated from Kent State with a major in English and moved to Southern California in 1969. Since 1976, she has lived in a Craftsman home in Pasadena’s Madison Heights neighborhood, where she was a successful neighborhood advocate before joining the Pasadena Heritage staff.
1970s
1970s
Leona W. Farris, MA ’70, Copley, OH, was honored by the Stow-Munroe Falls City School District, which declared Jan. 25, 2021, Leona W. Farris Day in honor of the matriarch of one of the first Black families to live in Stow, Ohio. A plaque displaying the proclamation was hung at the entrance of Stow-Munroe Falls High School, and a duplicate plaque was presented to Laura Farris-Daugherty, who accepted it for her mom (age 103), whom she calls “The Petite Wonder.”
Leona Farris and her husband, physician Melvin Farris, moved to Stow in 1954, and their children were the first Black children to attend the Stow schools. Farris was involved with her husband’s work in the Summit County Medical Auxiliary, volunteered with the PTA, and in the 1960s, helped stop the local Girl Scout group’s use of minstrel shows for fundraising activities.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics from The Ohio State University, where she joined a successful effort to integrate the dormitories. After earning a master’s degree from Kent State, in 1969 she became the first Black woman to teach as an assistant professor at The University of Akron. The university established a Leona W. Farris Scholarship in 1987, and she retired from there in 1988.
Farris was also involved with the NAACP, United Way, the Western Reserve Girl Scout Council, American Field Service and she has been a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority for 82 years. (Vice President Kamala Harris is a sorority sister.)
The city of Stow honored Farris by renaming Silver Springs Lodge as Leona Farris Lodge.
Michael Chanak Jr., BS ’71, Cincinnati, wrote, “The last film I was in for P&G, They Will See You: LGBTQ+ Visibility in Advertising, by Brent Miller, Otto Bell and Jordan Shavarebi (Great Big Story), has been nominated by GLAAD [an American nongovernmental media monitoring organization] for the 32nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards in the category of Outstanding Online Journalism—Video or Multimedia."
Barbara Brothers, PhD ’73, Youngstown, OH, who had a distinguished 40-year career as a faculty member and administrator at Youngstown State University, has endowed a scholarship for Black graduates of Youngstown City School District. The Dr. Barbara Brothers Scholarship in Education will assist Black students majoring in education at YSU. Brothers expects that these students will return to the school district one day to inspire the next generation of educators.
Brothers began her career at Youngstown State as an adjunct instructor in 1960. She held various roles and spearheaded initiatives across campus, including state and federal grants for working with public schools. After serving as the acting graduate dean in 1993, she became the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (now the Beeghly College of Liberal Arts, Social Sciences and Education). In 2001, Brothers retired from Youngstown State. In 2015, she received the university’s Heritage Award for professional accomplishments and community service.
She remains active in civic causes and serves on the boards of YWCA Mahoning Valley, Youngstown Rotary, League of Women Voters of Greater Youngstown, WYSU, Youngstown Garden Club, Lit Youngstown and the American Association of University Women.
Nick Saban Jr., BS ’73, MEd ’75, Tuscaloosa, AL, recently was named to the board of the National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches, which aims to promote and produce qualified minority coaches at every level of football. Saban—who played defensive back at Kent State for coaching legend Don James and joined the staff at Kent State as a graduate assistant in 1973 while his wife, Terry, finished her degree—has been head football coach at the University of Alabama since 2007.
After leading Alabama to a 52-24 decision over Ohio State in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 11, 2021 in Miami, Saban owns the record for most national championships by a head coach in college football history. The first coach to win a national title in three different decades, he has won seven national titles (the first at LSU in 2003, with the other six at Alabama), nine SEC titles and has the third-best winning percentage among active coaches.
He and his wife, who married while in college, will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2021. Together they’ve raised and donated more than $9 million to hundreds of organizations through their nonprofit, Nick’s Kids.
Mike Wilt, BS ’73, St. Helena Island, SC, wrote: “From January to June 1973, I participated in the 1973 Spring Semester on the United Nations System program, sponsored by the Center for International and Comparative Programs. It included trips and studies in Washington, DC; New York, NY; Geneva, Switzerland; and United Nations offices and sites throughout Europe. It was truly a great experience in my life. Before long it will be the 50th anniversary of this trip, and I would love to locate the participants to reconnect and see what has transpired in all those years since then. I have everyone’s name but I have lost track of their whereabouts. If you are one of the 18 participants from Kent State and/or know of the location of the other participant from Heidelberg University in Ohio, please contact me at mwilt08@gmail.com.”
Fred Jermyn, BS ’74, San Diego, wrote, “On Aug. 14, 2020, Brian Grubich [former athletics leadership annual giving officer and former assistant director of The Golden Flashes Club] announced via email the Kent State Men’s Soccer All-Decade Teams for the 1960s and 1970s. These two teams are the first selections by the school for any of their sports over the years.
“Voting was conducted by the men’s soccer alumni last spring, since there are no personnel currently at the university who had knowledge of the performances of participants in the program, which concluded at the end of the fall 1980 season. The individuals selected had received the most votes as tabulated by the school. No one could cast a vote for themselves, there was only one ballot that could be submitted by each voter, and there was no outside influence for weighing votes.
“The intent of the university for recognizing all-decade teams is a tremendous honor for the Kent State Men’s Soccer program and its participants.” Click here for a list of the best players and coach from each decade.
David C. Lange, BA ’75, Malvern, OH, was inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame in October 2020, in recognition for outstanding service to the community, state and nation after military service. A Navy veteran (on active duty from 1968 until 1971) and accomplished journalist, Lange has written extensively on topics such as Agent Orange and post-traumatic stress in military veterans and is the author of a coming-of-age memoir, Virginity Lost in Vietnam (Act 3 Publishing, 2018).
During his journalism career, he worked at four newspapers in Northeast Ohio and served as editor at the Geauga Times Leader. He helped found a Western Reserve Chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America in 1988, which is no longer active, and now is a member of the New Philadelphia chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion. He is on the board of the Carroll County Veterans Club.
Tom R. Halfhill, BS ’77, Burlingame, CA, has retired after 43 years as a journalist and technology analyst. Most recently he was a senior analyst at Microprocessor Report. Halfhill started at the Lorain Journal in 1977 and began covering technology in 1982. He launched five computer magazines and a technology newsletter, and he was a senior editor at Byte Magazine. He was a co-author, contributor or editor of more than 20 books on computers, the Civil War and crime. He also worked for British tech company ARC Cores. In retirement, he has joined the Microprocessor Report Editorial Board.
1980s
1980s
Lawrence R. Armstrong, BS ‘80, BArc ’80, San Clemente, CA, was appointed to join the NAIOP Research Foundation’s Governors program. Individuals who demonstrate their commitment to the foundation’s mission by making a substantial contribution to the endowment fund are invited to accept this lifetime distinction. Armstrong was honored online at NAIOP’s CRE Converge Virtual conference, Oct. 7-8, 2020.
NAIOP—formerly known as the National Association for Industrial and Office Parks and now known as the Commercial Real Estate Development Association—is the leading organization for developers, owners and related professionals in office, industrial, retail and mixed-use real estate. It provides industry networking and education, and it advocates for effective legislation on behalf of its members.
NAIOP’s sister organization, the NAIOP Research Foundation, was established in 2000 to provide practical research and education that allows commercial real estate owners and developers to capitalize on new trends and address challenges in the industry.
Armstrong is chairman of Ware Malcomb, a contemporary and expanding full-service design firm providing professional architecture, planning, interior design, civil engineering, branding and building measurement services to corporate, commercial/residential developers and public/institutional clients throughout the world.
He joined Ware Malcomb in 1984 and soon became responsible for running the firm’s Los Angeles office. In 1988, he was promoted to principal of the firm and became CEO in 1992. In 2020, Armstrong transitioned to the role of chairman of Ware Malcomb. In addition to expanding Ware Malcomb from a Southern California firm to a national and international firm with offices in key markets across North America, Lawrence’s tenure as CEO is hallmarked by an unprecedented 40x revenue growth.
Susan Miller Crowell, BS ’84, Lisbon, OH, retired in June 2019 from her position as editor of Farm and Dairy. She joined the paper in 1985 as a staff reporter and was named editor in 1989. A native of rural Holmes County, Ohio, Crowell was raised on a dairy farm near Walnut Creek.
During her tenure, the newspaper received the Carroll Soil and Water Conservation District’s Outstanding Service Award, the Jefferson County Friend of 4-H Award and the statewide Friend of the Forest award, presented by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry. She is a past recipient of the Agriculture Communicator of the Year award from the Ohio Agri-Women, the Ohio Farm Bureau’s Agriculture Communicator Award and the Ohio Sheep Improvement Association’s Distinguished Service Award.
She has also received numerous awards for her writing, including honors from the North American Agricultural Journalists, the National Newspaper Association, Inland Press Association and American Agricultural Editors Association. She is a five-time winner of the Best Columnist award from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists.
Crowell has been the Distinguished Guest Lecturer in Agricultural Communications at The Ohio State University, and she is also a guest lecturer at Walsh University in North Canton. She served on the vice president’s advisory council for the dean of The Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and is a past president of the statewide OSU Extension advisory council.
For eight years, she was also one of Ohio’s three delegates to the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities’ Council for Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching. She also served as the CARET liaison to the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy, the governing committee for the national Cooperative Extension System.
She was the first person from Columbiana County accepted into the statewide two-year agricultural Leadership Education and Development program (better known as LEAD), which culminated in a two-week international agricultural study tour to Chile and Mexico. She has also participated in agricultural study missions to the former Soviet Union, Israel and Cuba.
Crowell lives in eastern Ohio with her husband, Keith. They have two adult children, Annette and Jon. She is a member and elder of the New Lisbon Presbyterian Church and a member of the Columbiana County Farm Bureau.
Steven M. Altman, BGS ’85, Solon, OH, president and CEO of All-Pro Cleaning Services Inc., is celebrating 35 years of service. When he graduated from Kent State, he turned down job offers in sales to pursue entrepreneurship. The door-to-door window and gutter cleaning business he started out of his apartment now focuses on commercial buildings averaging 75,000 square feet and boasts more than 150 employees. In response to COVID-19, he ordered electrostatic disinfecting equipment and started a disinfecting division in the company.
Kathleen (Kirksey) Purdy, BS ’85, MEd ’89, Alliance, OH, was elected president of the Alliance Area Democratic Club. She serves on the Stark County Democratic Central Committee and has held various positions with the AADC, including vice president.
She received Ohio Education Association Minority Caucus Outstanding Political Activist recognition and hosted the Civics Essential: Ohio 2019 Game Hour produced by Soapbox Cincinnati and Fresh Water Cleveland, an initiative that works to raise residents’ knowledge of Ohio and how the law works.
Purdy is a community advocate with extensive leadership experiences ranging from topics on women’s issues, minority concerns, political action and professional development. She retired as an elementary school teacher in Plain Local School District, after a 33-year career.
Matthew T. Morris, BS ’86, Knoxville, TN, has been chosen by the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee to serve as deputy criminal chief for the Knoxville office’s white-collar and general crimes unit. He joined the US Attorney’s Office in 1996 and has focused on prosecuting white-collar and child-exploitation offenses, including environmental crime, fraud, public corruption and child pornography. He has served as the senior litigation counsel for the US Attorney’s Office since 2018.
Morris has previously headed up the office’s Project Safe Childhood, environmental crime, asset forfeiture and affirmative civil enforcement programs. Prior to joining the office, he was an assistant regional counsel for the US Environmental Protection Agency in Atlanta for five years. Morris earned his law degree from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1990.
Teresa (Dixon) Murray, BA ’87, Broadview Heights, OH, directs the Consumer Watchdog office at the United States Public Interest Research Group, which looks out for consumers’ health, safety and financial security. Prior to her current role, she worked as a journalist and columnist covering consumer issues and personal finance for two decades for The Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest daily newspaper. She is the recipient of dozens of state and national journalism awards, including Best Columnist in Ohio, Best Business Writer in Ohio and National Headliner Award for coverage of the 2008–09 financial crisis.
Among the accomplishments of which she’s most proud is receiving a journalism public service award for exposing improper billing practices by Verizon that affected at least 15 million customers nationwide. Her work caused Verizon to reach an $80 million settlement with the FCC, the largest ever imposed at that time. She and her husband live in Greater Cleveland and have two sons and a dog. She enjoys biking, house projects and music, and she serves on her church mission team and stewardship board.
Eric Nuzum, BA ’88, New York, co-founder of Magnificent Noise, a podcast production and creative consulting company, published Make Noise: A Creator’s Guide to Podcasting and Great Audio Storytelling (Workman Publishing, December 2019), available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and Indiebound.
Nuzum was program and operations director at WKSU, 1998–2004. He worked at National Public Radio, 2004–2015, as director of programming and acquisitions, and later as vice president of programming. He was senior vice president of original content development at Audible Inc., 2015–2018, before co-founding Magnificent Noise in 2018. The company’s client roster includes The New York Times, ESPN, TED and Esther Perel Global Media.
He was awarded the National Edward R. Murrow Award for News Writing. He is also the author of Giving Up the Ghost: A Story About Friendship, 80s Music, A Lost Scrap of Paper, and What It Means to be Haunted (2012), The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula (2007) and Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America (2001).
Nuzum talked about his background and his recent book about podcasting on Elevations, a weekly radio show on WKSU, in November 2020. He spoke about successful podcasting and advised podcast startups in two conversations.
1990s
1990s
Ceyhun Ozgur, PhD ’90, Valparaiso, IN, wrote: “I have been employed by Valparaiso University and retired as a research professor of information and decision sciences in the College of Business. I have been serving as an associate editor of Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education (DSJIE). Briefly, I have co-authored a textbook, Introduction to Management Science with Spreadsheets, published by MGraw-Hill, and I have published over 45 peer-reviewed publications.”
Jan F. Jumet, BBA ’91, Darlington, PA, founder and CEO of Jumet Financial, recently obtained a CPFA certification. Jumet Financial, with offices in Darlington, Pennsylvania, and Scottsdale, Arizona, announces the opening of an office in Canton, Ohio. Jumet and his team of six serve more than 450 clients in 30 different states. Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC.
John Paxton, MBA ’91, Charlotte, NC, was appointed chief executive officer of MHI, an international trade association that has represented the material handling, logistics and supply chain industry since 1945. MHI members include material handling and logistics equipment and systems manufacturers, integrators, consultants, publishers and third-party logistics providers.
Prior to joining the MHI team, Paxton served for over 20 years in executive leadership roles at Demag Cranes and Components. He has been recognized for his volunteer leadership at MHI, including service as president of the Crane Manufacturers Association, president of the Hoist Manufacturers Institute and chairman of the board of MHI.
Dorn Wenninger, BA ’91, Bentonville, AR, has been named senior vice president of produce at United Natural Foods Inc., North America’s premier food wholesaler. He will oversee growth and execute the strategy and expansion of UNFI’s capabilities in produce.
Wenninger has more than 25 years of experience in the procurement, sales, marketing and operations of several prominent packaged foods and retail companies. Most recently, he served as vice president perishables for Walmart Mexico, where he was responsible for sourcing and buying, and product development for the fresh departments for 2,400 stores in the region as well as Walmart’s meat processing plants.
Timothy D. Eippert, BBA ’92, Painesville, OH, chief executive officer of MC Group I Icon, one of the leading brand implementation companies in the United States, has announced that the company changed its name to Stratus in September 2020. The rebranding comes one year after MC Group and Icon joined forces to expand their services and become one of the largest players in the facility services industry.
Stratus builds better brands nationwide by offering signage, site refresh and remodel, repair and maintenance, and energy solutions such as lighting and electrical. A private-equity-owned company, Stratus employs more than 700 people. The company has headquarters in Mentor, Ohio, and Rolling Meadows, Illinois; operations centers in Ohio, Florida and New Jersey; and manufacturing facilities in Illinois, South Carolina and Virginia.
Eippert is also on the Kent State University Foundation Board.
Jodi Andes, BS ’93, Columbus, OH, published her first book, Master of Deceit: How a Veteran Con Man Scammed His Way into the White House (Micro Pub Media, 2020), a true crime narrative about the criminal chameleon who pulled off the greatest breach in White House history. The book quickly shot up to No. 5 among true crime biographies on Kindle Unlimited.
Andes, a former reporter for The Columbus Dispatch, also worked as a senior investigator for the Ohio Attorney General’s office, where she was assigned to the case of “Bobby Thompson” (one of his multiple aliases), who ran a fake charity for US Navy veterans and gained access to the Oval Office before President George W. Bush left office in 2008. After Andes left the Attorney General’s office, she worked as a licensed private investigator and continued to research the case. She is now a public information officer for the Franklin County Commissioners.
Robert Hunt, BSE ’96, PhD ’20, Chagrin Falls, OH, superintendent at Chagrin Falls Exempted Village Schools, has accepted a position as the next superintendent of the Barrington 220 Community Unit School District in Chicago. Hunt, who has one year left on his contract with Chagrin Falls Schools, will remain with the district through the end of this school year and support the transition to the next superintendent.
Hunt received the 2021 Ohio Superintendent of the Year award from the Buckeye Association of School Administrators at the Chagrin Falls Board of Education meeting on Oct. 21, 2020. He was hired as superintendent in June 2012 after serving one year as superintendent of Streetsboro City Schools. Previously, he had served Chagrin Falls Schools in a variety of roles, including assistant superintendent (2007-2011) and high school principal (2002-2007).
In 2007, he received the Ohio Principal of the Year award from the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the Ohio Educational Library and Media Association Administrator of the Year award. In May, he earned the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation Ohio Superintendent Outstanding Performance Award.
Hunt began his career as a middle school English teacher with Kenston Schools, where he went on to serve as assistant principal and athletic director. He earned a master’s degree in education administration from Ursuline College in Pepper Pike before completing a doctorate in K-12 educational leadership from Kent State.
Shana (Rozier) Smith, BA ’97, Canton, OH, became chief executive officer of YWCA Canton effective Dec. 8, 2020. She has been involved with several social service projects in the area, including Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health, Meyers Lake YMCA and Leadership Stark County. She has been teaching at Malone University and is pursuing a doctorate degree from Ashland University, where she earned an MBA in 2006.
Amy Pawlowski, BM ’97, MLIS ’03, Plain City, OH, has been named executive director of OhioLINK, Ohio’s academic library consortium. She joined OhioLINK in 2013 as deputy director for operations and e-licensing. In addition to her new role as executive director, she will continue to lead negotiations with publishers and information vendors to acquire shared electronic resources for OhioLINK’s 117 member libraries and more than 800,000 students across the state.
Pawlowski has nearly 20 years of experience in special, public and academic libraries and library-related private industry, with expertise in technology and the e-books/e-journals publishing ecosystem. Prior to joining OhioLINK, she worked with the Cleveland Public Library, CLEVNET and Overdrive Inc. She also served as archivist for the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra. She holds a master’s degree in music from the University of Hartford.
In 2019, Pawlowski was named a Change Agent by Library Journal’s Movers & Shakers for her role in negotiating a groundbreaking, inclusive-access textbook agreement with six major publishers, saving Ohio students approximately $39.7 million annually. She is a frequent presenter at library conferences and active in professional organizations. She currently serves on advisory boards for EBSCO Books, Springer Nature and the Cambridge University Press (North America).
2000s
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.
2010s
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Karie McMillen, BBA ’10, Dover, 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.
McMillen has several years of experience in providing tax and various audit and attestation services to real estate partnerships. She works with the low-income housing tax credit, tax-exempt bond financed developments, nonprofit organizations and those subject to the auditing requirements of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. She also works with upper-tier tax credit equity funds and tax credit syndicators. In addition, McMillen specializes in LIHTC consulting and financial modeling. She also has significant experience in conducting HUD Multifamily Accelerated Processing and Healthcare Quality Control and Construction Loan Administration reviews.
McMillen holds a master’s degree from Salem International University. She is licensed as a certified public accountant in Ohio.
Joe Manofsky, BSE ’11, Newburgh Heights, OH, is the co-founder of One Step Ahead, a Northeast Ohio nonprofit foundation. The mission of OSA is to ensure that local citizens as well as donors know exactly what their tax-deductible donations are funding. They currently facilitate three outreach programs: Heroes of Hardships, Trade School Scholarship Fund and Brown Bag Breakfast. Click here for information on how to help the local community grow, or email direct request to info@1-stepahead.org.
Jeffery L. Pellegrino, MPH ’13, Hudson, OH, an assistant professor of emergency management and homeland security in the Department of Disaster Science and Emergency Services at The University of Akron (UA), recently became the first non-Canadian inducted into the Order of the Red Cross, the highest honor bestowed by the Canadian Red Cross. Over the past 34 years, he has served the American Red Cross and Canadian Red Cross in various capacities, including disaster volunteer and first aid instructor, scientific expert, policymaker and author of first aid guidelines and practices.
Pellegrino, editor in chief of the International Journal of First Aid Education, is also the lead author of an important paper that appeared in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, in October. The paper, “2020 American Heart Association and American Red Cross Focused Update for First Aid,” provides updates to several first aid procedures, including the immediate treatment of life-threatening bleeding, the use of aspirin for chest pain, the recognition of stroke, and cooling techniques for hyperthermia and heatstroke. The updated procedures and guidelines are being adopted by the American Heart Association, American Red Cross and UA’s College of Health Professions in their educational materials.
Taléa R. Drummer-Ferrell, PhD ’14, Kent, OH, was appointed dean of students at Kent State on July 1, 2020, the first Black woman to be named to the position. (In Kent State’s history, Milton E. Wilson was the first Black man named dean of student affairs in September 1978.)
Drummer-Ferrell serves as the university’s primary student advocate and assists Lamar Hylton, vice president for student affairs, in leading the Division of Student Affairs. Prior to her appointment as interim dean of students on Oct. 1, 2019, she served as director of Kent State’s Student Multicultural Center, starting in October 2016.
Drummer-Ferrell oversees advocacy, support and well-being, including recreation and wellness services, the Center for Sexual and Relationship Violence Support Services, the Office of Student Conduct, psychological services, parent and family engagement, basic needs and students in crisis. She also has focused on coordinating emergency resources for students during the pandemic.
Drummer-Ferrell recently was appointed to the AVP Steering Committee for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. Her term runs from March 23, 2021-April 4, 2023.
Terri Brown Lenzo, PhD ’14, Findlay, OH, is a trustee of The Ohio Music Education Association and the editor of TRIAD: The Official Publication of OMEA. She co-presented a research session at the National Association for Music Education’s Music Research and Teacher Education Conference in February 2021: “’We Performed Our Own Piece!’ Composition in Middle School Band through Integration of Orff Schulwerk and Chrome Music Lab Song Maker.” Lenzo is an assistant professor of music education at Ohio Northern University.
Kristie Graybill, BS ’15, Kent, OH, has been named a full-time contributor to “The Fred Show,” which airs from 5 a.m. to noon weekdays on the iHeartMedia Top 40 station known as KISS FM. Until November, Graybill had spent two years as morning co-host at KSLZ in St. Louis. A native of Louisville, Ohio, she began in radio at WDJQ in Canton, Ohio, and later worked for WKFS in Cincinnati.
Tyler Hostetler, BSN ’15, MSN ’20, Chardon, OH, worked for two years in a Level 1 Trauma ICU after receiving a degree from the Kent State Geauga Campus in 2015. He returned as a part-time student in graduate studies at the Kent Campus in 2017, while working full-time in University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center’s Emergency Department. He completed the adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner program and graduated in 2020. He plans to return to the ICU as an acute-care nurse practitioner.
Curtis Cofojohn, BA ’17, Mantua, OH, is founder and managing partner of AllCollegeRentals.com, a site that serves the needs of both students and landlords for off-campus housing. The site gives students a chance to walk through properties virtually via 3D tours, compare properties side by side and apply for housing. In addition, students can download a lease, sign it and save it in their device rather than having a paper lease. Cofojohn started the business with listings in Kent, but now the company, which has been active for over a year, has extended beyond Ohio to New Jersey, Michigan, Texas and California.
He is also co-founder and partner of Buy360Tour LLC, which facilitates creative content creation through 3D virtual reality photography and video along with standard professional photography and drone photography for all industries.
Marissa “Rissa” Durbin, AA ’17, Twinsburg, OH, self-published Awakening Shadows (Lilac Daggers Press LLC), the first in a series of fantasy novels under the pen name Sydney Hawthorn, in September 2020. She imagined the book’s fantasy world when she was 8 years old, as an escape from being constantly bullied, and at age 12, she wrote the book’s first draft, which she revised years later.
Awakening Shadows is about a princess saving her kingdom from darkness, but it’s also “about finding yourself and realizing, whether you believe it or not, you are strong enough and always will be,” says Durbin. The second book in the series, Whispering Shadows, is due to be released in summer 2021. The books can be purchased through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and several other retailers, such as The Learned Owl in Hudson, Ohio. Merchandise and signed copies of her book are available on her website.
Morgan Mervenne, BS ’17, Grand Rapids, MI, recently joined Burco as sales and marketing coordinator of the Michigan-based automotive mirrors and windshield racking systems manufacturer. She previously held positions as a corporate merchandiser and e-commerce specialist at Forever 21 and Air Waves LLC.
Jack Murphy, BS ’17, Kent, OH, was appointed global account manager at Akron Dispersions. Murphy had served in research and development as a chemist at Kent Adhesive Products Co. (dba Kapco), with product development and account responsibilities, for the past six years. Akron Dispersions, founded in 1958, manufactures water-based dispersions and emulsions of chemical ingredients for the polymer industry and employs various processing systems for dry chemical processing. He is on the executive board of the Kent Jaycees and was Jaycee of the Year in 2019.
N.J. Akbar, PhD ’19, Akron, OH, was elected president of the Akron Public Schools Board of Education for 2021. He had served as vice president in his first year on the board. Akbar, an associate vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion at Kent State, is heading the board’s initiative to develop a racial equity policy for the Akron school district.
Hallee Larissa Smith, BBA ’19, Sandusky, OH, a marketing major with a graphic design minor, has amassed 1 million followers on the social media app TikTok since last December, after her freelance design business dried up when the coronavirus hit. She has accrued most of her following since June, and is also on Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat. She also started a consulting/coaching business, Hallee Media & Design LLC, where she consults with business owners over how to grow their social media footprint, specializing in short-form video content creation. See her Instagram account @hallemedia and Facebook group.
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*Note: To save costs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are not printing or mailing the print edition of Kent State Magazine for the foreseeable future. We hope to return it to print when finances allow. However, the current digital edition and a PDF of the print layout still can be found at www.kent.edu/magazine/. You can access Class Notes and In Memory in the Alumni Life section.