2014 Fall – Alumni News and Notes: 2000s and 2010s

2000s Wade A. Gibbs ’00 (BUS) was the adult ambassador for the  2014 Greater Hartford Walk to Cure Arthritis, with the goal of fundraising $104,580. Alexander Thacher ’00 JD is principal at Ernst & Young in the firm’s Seattle office. He is a member of the firm’s tax practice, where he serves as a subject […]

2000s

Wade A. Gibbs ’00 (BUS) was the adult ambassador for the  2014 Greater Hartford Walk to Cure Arthritis, with the goal of fundraising $104,580.

Alexander Thacher ’00 JD is principal at Ernst & Young in the firm’s Seattle office. He is a member of the firm’s tax practice, where he serves as a subject matter professional in income and franchise tax.

Adam Bokon ’03 (BUS) is vice president of commercial real estate banking and lending
at Brookline Bank in Brookline, Mass. He focuses on the Greater Boston market and provides financing for investors interested in multifamily, office, retail, and industrial properties.

Matthew S. Necci ’03 (CLAS) is partner at the law firm Halloran & Sage LLP in Connecticut. He also serves on the Special Olympics of Connecticut Board of Directors.

Kristen (Jacob) Smith ’03 (CLAS) and her husband, Jeff, announce the birth of their second son, Kaleb Joseph Smith, on May 18, 2013. Kristen works in championships and alliances at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Shelly Abdella ’05 MBA is senior vice president of finance and profitability at Webster Bank in Waterbury, Conn. She joined Webster Bank in 2001 and has worked as a financial analyst and vice president of finance in the financial planning department.

Jessica (P’an) Cooper ’05 (CLAS) graduated magna cum laude from her MBA Program at Babson College on May 18, 2013. She also married Benjamin Cooper on Oct. 12, 2013, and the couple resides in Stamford, Conn. Fellow alumni Brandan Tormey ’05 (ED), Hillary Lemos ’07 MA, and Ryan Bannister ’07 (CLAS) attended, and Megan Kelly ’05 (ED) served as maid of honor.

Scott F. Creamer ’05 MA, ’09 Ph.D. is a professor of political science and department chair in the department of history, geography, and political science at Valencia College in  Orlando, Fla. He earned tenure in 2014. He also created a study abroad program in international politics at Valencia College.

Kelly (Burke) Lamb ’05 (SFS) and Craig Lamb announce the birth of a baby boy, Evan Anthony, born on Dec. 11, 2013. He joins big brother Desmond, age 2. The family resides in Rochester, N.Y.

Michael Louis ’05 (ED), ’07 MA a four-year letter  winner for the UConn men’s tennis team and a six-year assistant coach for the Huskies, is the UConn men’s tennis head coach. He previously served as head coach of the men’s and women’s teams at the University of Hartford.

Ashley M. Ludovicy-Donahue ’05 (BUS), ’06 (CLAS) is assistant chief for the U.S. Army’s attorney civilian career program at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. She has a JD from the New England School of Law.

Dionisio “Dennis” Ortiz ’05 (ED) and his wife, Tovah, announce the birth of a baby
boy, David Lawrence, on Feb. 18, 2014, in San Antonio. Dennis is a captain in the U.S. Army and a fourth-year orthopedic surgery resident at the San Antonio Military Medical Center.

Greg Oshins ’05 MBA is vice president of investments at National Realty & Development Corporation (NRDC) in Purchase, N.Y. He has been at NRDC since 2006 as a member of the acquisitions and development team and the leasing team.

Joel Henry ’06 (ENG), ’14 JD is an associate in the intellectual property group of Faegre Baker Daniels in Indianapolis, where he prepares and prosecutes patent applications. Previously, he was an electrical project engineer with United Technologies Aerospace Systems, where he led engineering efforts and managed all aspects of international trade compliance for the company. He served as a summer associate for Faegre Baker Daniels, is a 12-year member of the Air National Guard, received the Air Force Achievement Medal for meritorious service, and is captain and cyberspace operations officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.

Ryan J. Krueger ’06 (BUS) is managing director of equity research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in Hartford, Conn. He previously worked at Dowling & Partners as partner and sector head.

Sara (Needham) Butler ’07 (BUS), a special education teacher in Denver, received a 2014 Excellence in Teaching Award from Teach for America in April.

Philip Deutsch ’07 (CLAS) is a financial services representative at Grand Central Financial Group, a local MetLife office in New York, N.Y.

Jason Hintersteiner ’07 MBA is founder, president, and chief technology officer of Norwalk, Conn.-based Imperial Network Solutions, which specializes in wired and Wi-Fi network design and maintenance and provides consulting services spanning a range of topics, including network design, predictive analyses, site surveys, and network verification/troubleshooting.

Jennifer Puskarz ’07 MA, a social studies teacher at Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford, Conn., received the Excellence in Social Studies Education Award in June from the Connecticut Council for the Social Studies. She previously was awarded the  Innovation in Civics grant from the Stanton Foundation and will complete her MA in education, with a focus on school counseling, at UConn in 2015.

Robert Rowe ’07 (BUS) is vice president of digital product management at Clear Channel Media + Entertainment in New York, N.Y. He previously  served as director of digital product management, during which time he launched the on-demand audio “Shows & Personalities” feature for iHeartRadio.

Vu Tran ’07 (CLAS) is pursuing his Ph.D. at Ohio State University’s Higher Education and Student Affairs program. His research focuses on the impact of age identity in higher education.

Matthew Ganio ’09 Ph.D., assistant professor of exercise science at the University of Arkansas and director of the university’s Human Performance Laboratory in Fayetteville, Ark., served as an invited speaker at the Southeastern Conference annual symposium in Atlanta this September.

Emily Hoffman ’09 (CLAS) and Eric Weinstein ’10 (CLAS) will be married on June 21, 2015, in Livingston, N.J.

Eric Sirois ’09 (ENG), ’14 Ph.D. is the founder and CEO of Dura Biotech, a Storrs, Conn.-based company that is part of UConn’s Technology Incubation Program. The company, which develops innovative technologies to improve functionality and durability of bioprosthetic heart valves, won the CTNext Entrepreneur Innovation Award in February. The award provides $10,000 for innovative project ideas that help propel startups to the next level.

Margo Staruch ’09 MS, ’13 Ph.D. is a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. She and her husband, Craig Burdick ’96 (CLAS), ’01 (ENG), associate director of development communications at the George Washington University, live in Alexandria, Va.

2010s

Matthew D. Dean ’10 Ph.D. is an associate professor of business with tenure at the University of Southern Maine School of Business in Portland, Maine, and director of the Maine Center for Business and Economic Research at the university.

Anthony M. Cavallaro ’11 (ENG) was accepted to the Information Technology Leadership Development Program at Travelers Insurance in Hartford, Conn. This accelerated rotational program emphasizes leadership development for information technology professionals.

Ryan Demadis ’11 (BUS) is vice president, associate producer at NorthMarq in Boston. He was previously an associate broker at RM Bradley and co-founded RiseUp  Leadership Development Program, which supports and mentors inner-city youth.

Brandon Miller ’11 (CLAS) served as a summer associate at the law firm Wiggin and Dana in New Haven, Conn., this past summer. He attends Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, N.Y.

Dimitri Pan ’11 (CAHNR) is a client relationship associate with The  Vanguard Group in Charlotte, N.C., after obtaining his Series 7 and Series 63 securities licenses.

Marinela Shqina ’11 (BUS) is a controller at Arbors of Hop Brook in Manchester, Conn. She is a member of the Connecticut  Association of Health Care Facilities, Healthcare Financial Management Association, and a non-CPA member of the Connecticut Society of CPAs.

Kenji G. Greenberg ’12 MS is a senior assistant accountant at Sansiveri, Kimball & Co., LLP in Providence, R.I. He has earned the Certified Public Accountant designation.

Thomas Andreoli ’13 (ENG), Patrick Charmel ’14 (CLAS), Paul DelVecchio ’13 (CLAS), Christopher Demattie ’09 (CLAS), Marc Demattie ’13 (CLAS), David Faenza ’13 (CLAS), Ferid  “Frank” Feratovic ’13 (BUS), Harrison Fuchs ’13 (ENG), John Mitkevicius ’13 (CLAS), Michael Price ’13 (BUS), Daniel Stewart ’13 (BUS), and Andrew Zielinski ’14  (CLAS) together collected a total of $60,000 at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas after placing a bet that the UConn men’s basketball team would win the tournament this year. The team had 50- to-1 odds of winning at the time the bets were placed.

Wade Moore ’13 (ENG), design engineer for Moore Manufacturing in Milford, Conn., was a finalist for the Hurco Companies, Inc., Chipmaker Challenge Championship held in September.

Claire Simonich ’13 (BUS, CLAS), a JD candidate at Yale Law School in New Haven, Conn., received the Undergraduate Student Award at the Provost’s Awards for Excellence in Public Engagement last November.

Jeffrey R. Carlson ’14 Ph.D. successfully defended his dissertation, “Exploring the Importance and Value of Studying Subjective Time in Marketing Management,” and is an assistant professor at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Va.

Erin E. Henry ’14 Ph.D. successfully defended her dissertation, “The Information Content of Tax Expense: A Firm- and Market- Level Return Decomposition,” and has a tenure-track position at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn.

Norman Massel ’14 Ph.D. successfully defended his dissertation, “The Effect of Exemption from Mandatory Disclosure to the IRS on Firm Value and Behavior,” and is an assistant professor on track for tenure at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La.

Tingyu Zhou ’14 Ph.D. successfully defended her dissertation, “Three Essays on Decision Making Strategies,” and has a tenure-track assistant professor position at Concordia University in Montreal.