2012 Summer – Alumni News and Notes 1980s

John Peters ’80 (BUS) is president of ACCUWRITE Forms and Systems, a Hershey, Pa.-based company providing printed business products, which is celebrating its 25th year in business. George Riggs ’80 MBA is a partner in the assurance and advisory services practice at Fiondella Milone & LaSaracina LLP, an accounting firm located in Glastonbury, Conn. Russell […]

John Peters ’80 (BUS) is president of ACCUWRITE Forms and Systems, a Hershey, Pa.-based company providing printed business products, which is celebrating its 25th year in business.

George Riggs ’80 MBA is a partner in the assurance and advisory services practice at Fiondella Milone & LaSaracina LLP, an accounting firm located in Glastonbury, Conn.

Russell St. John ’80 (ENG), ’85 MBA is board director at DeviceFidelity, based in Richardson, Texas, which provides contactless technologies for mobile phones.

Thomas P. Hebert ’81 MA, ’90 6th Year, ’93 Ph.D., professor of educational psychology and instructional technology at the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga., was named Outstanding Alumni of the Year by the Neag School of Education Alumni Society in March.

Jerome Francis Lusa ’81 (CLAS), a retired computer software writer for the state of Connecticut, is the author of Anybody’s Dog, his 10th e-book, published by Smashwords in January.

Pamela Sardo ’81 (PHR) is assistant scientific director of Abbott Laboratories. She works with laboratories and academic centers in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She currently resides in Singapore.

Rachel F. Schiffman ’81 MS, ’88 Ph.D., professor and associate dean for research at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Nursing, received the Lucie S. Kelly Mentor Award at the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society’s 41st Biennial Convention, held in Texas in October.

Avron Abraham ’82 MA, ’90 Ph.D., director of the Center for Academic Success and University Studies and associate professor in the department of health and exercise science at the University of Delaware in Newark, Del., was named Outstanding Kinesiology Professional by the Neag School of Education Alumni Society in March.

Joanne Cunard ’83 Ph.D., professor of education at St. Joseph College in West Hartford, Conn., received the 2011 International Reading Association’s Celebrate Literacy Award for her significant literary contributions to the field of reading.

Mark Dripchak ’83 (CANR) is natural resources management advisor at Concern Worldwide, an international humanitarian nonprofit organization located in Faizabad, Afghanistan.

Gary Gambardella ’83 (ED) is district judge in Bucks County, Pa.

John M. Lasala ’83 MD, professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, received the American Heart Association’s 2011 Hugh McCulloch Award for Outstanding Cardiologist in the Midwest. He serves as director of interventional cardiology and medical director of the university’s cardiac catheterization laboratory.

Beth Lindstrom ’83 (CLAS) is vice president of business development and strategic accounts marketing at Ping4, a mobile phone application startup company in Nashua, N.H.

Benjamin S. Hsiao ’84 MS, ’87 Ph.D., professor and chairman of the department of chemistry at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, N.Y., is vice president for research, chief research officer, and senior academic administrator at the university. He also serves as chief advisor to the president.

Frank Marcucio ’84 (BUS), a business teacher at Westhill High School in Stamford, Conn., also serves as the school’s head football coach. He was previously the head coach for the Bassick High School football team in Bridgeport, Conn., and was UConn’s basketball student manager from 1981 to 1984.

Rosalee Sinn ’84 MS received the 2011 Dan West Fellow Award from the Heifer Foundation’s Trustees Emeriti in recognition of her lifelong dedication to helping the world’s impoverished people. She began working for Heifer in 1965, became regional director in 1973, and directed the fundraising and education efforts in New England and New York. From 1982 to 1984, she supervised the building of the Heifer Livestock and Learning Center at Overlook Farm in Rutland, Mass. She is retired, lives with her husband in Massachusetts, and remains a Heifer volunteer.

Suzanne Bona-Hatem ’85 (SFA), classical music broadcaster, host, and executive producer of WSHU’s “Sunday Baroque,” was featured as a guest soloist with the Guam symphony orchestra in March.

Steve Patten ’85 (CLAS) is president of the 2012 Certified Commercial Investment Member’s Connecticut chapter.

Charles Gill ’86 MBA is vice president, tax, of Keane, Inc., in Boston.

Peter A. LaPorta ’86 (CLAS) is author of Adventures in Autism, his fourth book, published by AuthorHouse in 2011.

David M. Jurasek ’86 MBA is vice president of finance at Crystal Rock LLC, Inc.

Brian J. Kelley ’86 MBA is president and CEO of Tii Network Technologies, Inc., a design, manufacturing, and marketing company that provides products for the communications industry.

Aaron J. Spicker ’86 (CLAS) is founding partner of HoverFly Studios, which builds custom-designed multi-rotor copters and fits mounting systems to hold cameras. He previously worked 26 years as a diamond and fine jewelry salesman and entrepreneur.

Anne Foley ’87 MSW, undersecretary for the Policy Development and Planning Division of the Office of Policy and Management in Hartford, Conn., serves as the chair of the Child Poverty and Prevention Council, the Low Income Energy Advisory Board, and the Tobacco and Health Fund Board of Trustees.

John Y. Kim ’87 MBA, executive vice president and chief investment officer of New York Life Investments, was selected to head a new business unit focusing on retirement income security products and solutions.

Elizabeth Bicio ’88 (ED), ’94 MSW is a fellow of Zero to Three, a national, nonprofit organization that informs, trains, and supports professionals, policymakers, and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers.

Michael Moran ’88 (ENG) is the Shindand, Afghanistan, base civil engineer.

John Selman ’88 (CLAS), program director of the energy and environment group at LMI, a government consulting firm in McLean, Va., led experts from LMI in developing and producing the book Climate Change: What You Can Do Now, published by LMI in March.

Greg Gallant ’89 MD, an orthopaedic surgeon at OrthopaediCare in Doylestown, Pa., is the 56th president of the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, member of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, and former president of the Bucks County Medical Society.