Maria M. Bonaiuto ’70 (NUR), director of school health for the Mecklenburg County Health Department in Charlotte, N.C., received the Eleanor K. Gill Outstanding Alumni Award for Clinical Excellence in Nursing. She has authored several articles featured in The Journal of School Nursing, the official publication of the National Association of School Nurses.
Carmen V. Roberto ’70 (CLAS), an attorney with the law firm Bernlohr, Niekamp & Weisensell, LLP in Akron, Ohio, was elected president of the Ohio State Bar Association for the July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011 term.
Abraham C. Reich ’71 (CLAS), co-chair and partner of the law firm Fox Rothschild LLP in Philadelphia, was recognized as a litigation star in Pennsylvania in the fourth edition of Benchmark Litigation, a guide to America’s leading litigation firms and attorneys.
Robert Kaplan ’73 (CLAS) was nominated by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to the Defense Policy Board, where he will assist the board in advising the Secretary on pressing defense matters. He is a Distinguished Alumni Award winner from 2004 and has written more than 13 books on foreign affairs, which have been translated into multiple languages.
Maryjoan D. Ladden ’73 (NUR), senior program officer of human capital portfolio for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, N.J., received a Carolyn Ladd Widmer Outstanding Alumni Award for Leadership in Nursing. She serves as a nurse practitioner, researcher and assistant clinical professor in the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention at Harvard Medical School. She also serves as the director of Continuing Professional Education at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
Philip Rubin ’74 M.A., ’76 Ph.D., chief executive officer and a senior scientist at Haskins Laboratories and adjunct professor in the Department of Surgery, Otolaryngology at the Yale University School of Medicine, received the American Psychological Association’s Meritorious Research Service Commendation. The award recognizes outstanding psychologists who help foster the discipline of psychological science through their programmatic activities as staff of the federal government or other organizations. The awards ceremony was held at the association’s Science Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 13, 2010.
Edilma Yearwood ’74 (NUR), associate professor of nursing and health studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., received the Beverly Koerner Outstanding Alumni Award for Education in Nursing. She is a member of the American Academy of Nursing, the International Society of Psychiatric Nurses and the Eastern Nurses Research Society.
Ronald Pfeffer ’75 (CLAS) received his master’s degree in educational technology from Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn. He and his family have moved from Connecticut to Mooresville, N.C.
Scott Prussing ’75 (CLAS) is the author of Breathless, published by Scott Prussing Publishing in 2010.
Thomas J. Welsh ’75 (CLAS), ’80 J.D., partner and attorney with the law firm Brown & Welsh, P.C. in Meriden, Conn., was appointed to a four-year term as a commissioner of the Connecticut Law Revision Commission by Christopher Donovan, the Connecticut Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Don Bari ’76 (ENG), ’80 M.B.A. is vice president at Chemical Market Associates, Inc., in Valhalla, N.Y. He previously served as senior vice president at Nexant, a business consulting and outsourcing firm.
LaRene Despain ’76 Ph.D. (CLAS) is retired and now professor emeritus at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, where she has taught English for 38 years. She has taught composition studies and American literature and established a writing center for the university in 1973.
Darrell Reisner ’76 M.A., ’95 M.D. is an ophthalmologist at Our Lady Bellefonte Hospital in Portsmouth, Ohio. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Ophthalmology.
Robert Diamond ’77 M.B.A. was promoted to president and chief executive officer of corporate and investment banking and wealth management at Barclays PLC in New York, N.Y. He will begin his new role on March 31, 2011.
Laura S. Minor ’77 (CLAS) was recently named staff development manager at Wheeler Clinic, a nonprofit, multiservice behavioral health agency in Plainville, Conn. She previously served as program manager for the clinic’s prevention, wellness and recovery program and as the training manager for its employee assistance program. She is an adjunct professor at UConn’s Department of Community Medicine.
Constance M. Johnson ’78 (NUR), assistant professor and director of the Nursing Informatics Program at Duke University’s School of Nursing, received the Marlene Kramer Outstanding Alumni Award for Nursing Research. Her research involves examining how the presentation of information can influence health-related decisions in health promotion and disease prevention.
Sandra Blinstrubas ’79 (CANR) is the co-founder and co-owner of Microcom, the largest satellite retailer in Alaska and Hawaii for DISH Network and DirecTV. Microcom received the Small Business of the Year Award for 2010 from the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce.
Deb Lucke ’79 (SFA) is the author ofSneezenesia, her fourth children’s book, published by Clarion Books in October. It was recently acquired by a Japanese publisher and will be reprinted in Japanese.
Lauralee Martin ’79 M.B.A. is on the board of directors at Kaiser Aluminum Corporation in Chicago.
Robert Sherman ’79 (BUS) is a partner at GoldenTree Asset Management in New York, where he will continue the expansion of the company’s institutional franchise. He previously served as chief executive officer at Seix Investment Advisors, Inc., in New Jersey.
