JWU Magazine - Spring 2015

JW

ALL-CLASS REUNION Griffins and Wildcats Gather in Providence

Sarah Cirelli ’07 B.S. Marketing

Profiles in

SUCCESS

Thirteen JWU graduates who are redefining achievement

SPRING

2015

CONTENTS 10

SPRING 2015 FEATURES

10

PROFILES IN SUCCESS

08

37

According to Winston S. Churchill, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

We profile 13 alumni about lessons learned from risky business and how Johnson & Wales shaped their mission statements.

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ALL-CLASS REUNION Griffins and Wildcats gathered in Providence for the Second Annual All-Class Reunion. The weekend featured tours of the university’s newest additions and delicious creations from alumni chefs.

26 DEPARTMENTS

24

02 04 08 24 28 30 32 40

From the Chancellor Campus News Athletics Resource Development Alumni News Activities & Events Class Notes Career Update

www.jwu.edu

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JWU

FROM THE CHANCELLOR’S DESK

Vice President of Communications DOUG WHITING

Director of Design & Editorial Services BRIAN MURPHY

Editor

DENISE DOWLING

Art Director

ED PEREIRA

Contributors JENNIFER BROUILLARD GREGORY DISTEFANO RACHEL DONILON JULIA S. EMLEN PHILIP EIL ANDREA FELDMAN JORDAN FICKESS

T

HIS WINTER MADE a distinct impression on many in our JWU community. Storms gave both Providence and Denver their snowiest February on record.

Two inches of heavy slush blanketed Charlotte. Even North Miami wasn’t spared, as temperatures plunged one morning into the low 40s.

After such a standout winter, it seems appropriate to highlight standout alumni in our annual alumni profile issue. This year we emphasize their entrepreneurial spirit to overcome adversity and create success.

When his son was diagnosed with diabetes, Angelo Pitassi ’03 MBA parlayed his jewelry design knowledge to create mobile solutions that work with Health Information Privacy (HIP) Medical ID Bands to communicate health information more effectively during a medical emergency. Nikki Klebieko ’92 planned on pursuing a career in fashion merchandising, but instead used her skills to grow her family’s multimillion dollar, national blasting business after a car accident left her father

VANESSA E. GARCIA SHARU GOODWYN MELINDA HILL KARA JOHNSTON HOLLI KEYSER ELIZABETH MORETTI MADELINE PARMENTER DONALD PAULHUS LISA PELOSI

paralyzed. When the 10-year-old brother of Paul Damico ’86 needed a liver transplant and his father’s employer provided the helicopter to transport him in time, Damico discovered the importance of employer stewardship, which today influences his philanthropic endeavors.

At some point we all endure tragedies that transform us into the people we are today, often in ways we don’t even realize at the time.

How have you overcome adversity to create success? I invite you to continue the conversation and share your success stories with us at jwumagazine@jwu.edu.

As JWU alumni, we are one strong and united family. The next time you face adversity, think of our alumni on these next few pages and of your own successes during difficult times — and remember that despite a deluge of winter storms, spring always comes.

ELIZABETH SCANLON ’97 M.S. STEPHEN SMITH MARY SWARD DAMARIS R. TEIXEIRA LAUREN TKACS MIRIAM S. WEINSTEIN ’08 MBA MELINDA LAW WESTMORELAND TERRENCE WILLIAMS ’89

JWU Magazine is published four times a year including a special supplement for recent graduates. Photos (black and white or color prints), high-resolution digital images and news can be sent to JWU Magazine, 8 Abbott Park Place, Providence, RI, 02903 or emailed to jwumagazine@jwu.edu.

Selection and publication of entries are at the editor’s discretion. JWU Magazine is produced

by University Communications in cooperation with Resource Development and Alumni Relations.

Chancellor JOHN J. BOWEN ’77

Providence Campus President and Chief Operating Officer MIM L. RUNEY, LP.D.

Regional Campus Presidents LARRY RICE, ED.D., ’90

Chancellor John J. Bowen ’77

INTERIM NORTH MIAMI ROBIN KRAKOWSKY ’88, ’08 ED.D., DENVER TARUN MALIK ’90, ’11 ED.D. INTERIM CHARLOTTE

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Spring 2015

JWU’s Honorary Class of 2015 NORTH MIAMI CAMPUS

PROVIDENCE CAMPUS Graduate Studies

MAUREEN MCKENNA GOLDBERG Justice Rhode Island Supreme Court Doctor of Business Administration in Criminal Justice Management

College of Management (School of Business, School of Hospitality)

EDWARD OTIS HANDY III President and CEO The Washington Trust Company Doctor of Business Administration in Finance

CLAY ALAN SNYDER ’93 Senior Director Hilton Worldwide/Brand Management Doctor of Travel-Tourism & Hospitality Management

JESSICA BERTHA HARRIS Professor Queens College/CUNY Doctor of Humane Letters

DAVID LAWRENCE JR. President The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership

DENVER CAMPUS John Hazen White College of Arts & Sciences, College of Culinary Arts and School of Engineering & Design

MARK R. LADNER ’90 Executive Chef DelPosto Restaurant Doctor of Culinary Arts

ANGELA LEIGH RAYNOR Proprietor Boarding House and The Pearl Doctor of Business Administration in Food Service Entrepreneurship

SETH CARTER RAYNOR Proprietor/Executive Chef Boarding House and The Pearl Doctor of Culinary Arts

As Johnson & Wales University celebrates the graduation of its accomplished students during commencement, the university also inducts an august group of leaders as honorary members of the Class of 2015.

These accomplished men and women are recognized for their notable careers and their positive influence on their industries, organizations and communities. Each has demonstrated support of the mission of JWU in his or her own unique way, and serves as a role model for our students and graduates.

LAWRENCE R. DIPASQUALE Chairman and CEO Epicurean Group Doctor of Business Administration in Food Service Entrepreneurship

RICHARD MANUEL SANDOVAL Founder, CEO and Chef Richard Sandoval Restaurants Doctor of Culinary Arts in Food Service Entrepreneurship

CHARLOTTE CAMPUS

RON HINSON Chairman, President and CEO S&D Coffee & Tea Doctor of Business Administration

VIRGINIA A.S. PHILIP ’89 Wine Director and Master Sommelier The Breakers Doctor of Oenology

www.jwu.edu

CAMPUS NEWS “ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK” AUTHOR SHARES HER STORY PIPER

KERMAN

says

she

wrote “Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison” “to shift perspective — that prisoners are people, not numbers.”

Before a packed house in Schneider Auditorium on January 13, Kerman gave the “Cliff Notes of the Cliff Notes” of how she, a Smith alumna and good girl (mostly), became Prisoner 11187-424, serving 15 months for transAngela Renaud, dean, John Hazen White College of Arts & Sciences; Tom Dwyer, university provost; Mim L. Runey, Providence Campus president and COO; John J. Bowen ’77, chancellor; Marie Bernardo-Sousa, senior vice president of administration; and Frank Tweedy, dean, School of Engineering & Design

GROUNDBREAKING JWU’S FUTURE

3

-2-1 AND THEN THE FIRST SHOVELS of dirt were tossed, marking the official start of construction on Johnson & Wales University’s new academic building. A beautiful spring morning on April 22 ensured that it was dirt — not mud— at center stage for the ceremony that was attended by more than 70 invited guests, including Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza.

Before senior administrators donned their hard hats, the significance of this construction project was made known.

“The building we are constructing represents the future,” said Marie Bernardo-Sousa, JWU senior vice president of administration, “the future of Johnson & Wales as we expand our science, technology and engineering programs; the future areas of the workforce where our graduates will begin and grow their careers; and the future of the state of Rhode Island as we begin development on the former I-195 land.”

The three-story building will have a graphic design studio and innovation, robotics and network simulation labs, as well as biology, anatomy, physics, physiology and chemistry labs. This building has been designed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

“The students who will be educated in this new academic building will be prepared for the jobs our governor and other state leaders are trying to attract to Rhode Island,” said JWU Providence Campus President and COO Mim Runey.

The new building, located at Friendship and Chestnut streets, is scheduled for completion July 2016. — Lisa Pelosi

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Spring 2015

porting drug money across international lines.

Her experiences in prison were life changing: “I was raised to think about social justice, but there’s a big difference between thinking about it and being plunked into a place where inequality is so starkly on display.”

Kerman, a staunch advocate for prison reform, credits the Netflix adaptation of her book, now in its third hit season, with expanding the national conversation.

— Andrea Feldman and Lauren Tkacs

WHAT’S SCUP?

THANKS TO CHEF BILL IDELL, department chair and associate professor, College of Culinary Arts, scup, also known as “porgy,” got lots of love when it became the center of attention at the Rhode Island Seafood Challenge 2015. JWU teamed up with the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF) and Rhode Island Sea Grant for the event that was held at the Harborside Amphitheater on April 10. Three JWU student teams — the Club of Culinary Excellence, Cooking Asia, and the Nutrition Society — were tasked with creating recipes to raise awareness of this underutilized species. The audience voted for the winning dish, which was Cooking Asia’s “Porgy in a Pouch,” a delicate balance of scup with a Southeast Asian-inspired bed of assorted aromatics, wrapped in parchment (en papillote).

— Miriam Weinstein ’08 MBA

GROUNDBREAKING BY SCOTT KINGSLEY; AUTONMARCHI PHOTO BY IRENE COROALLES; VEGAS PHOTO BY SHERRY ANDRE; KERMAN PHOTO BY MARY SWARD

LEFT TO RIGHT :

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS? VIP ACCESS TO THE GAMING AND HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY PROFESSOR SHERRY ANDRE’s annual trip to Las Vegas as part of her gaming industry course remains a favorite among sports/entertainment/ event management and hospitality students.

“The Gaming Industry course is by far the best class I have taken during my four years at Johnson & Wales University,” says Horace Matthew ’15. “I learned the basics about gaming as a player and from a manager’s perspective.

Now whenever I walk into a casino or an establishment that provides any sort of gaming, I automatically look for things we talked about in class or that I learned about during a trip. This class opened my eyes to a world that I didn’t really know existed with great career opportunities.”

During the four-night January excursion, students learn about trends, legalities and career options, as well as gain a better understanding of gaming floor layouts, popular marketing tactics and various games offered. Students are also introduced to the management practices behind world-class resorts, the multimillion-dollar nightclub industry, various tourism initiatives, and hospitality VIP services.

“The trip introduces students to one of the top gaming destinations in the world, which is the primary focus of the course,” Andre says. “Beyond that, it offers them an opportunity to hear from a variety of hospitality leaders and provides access to multiple facets of their industry.”

Highlights of this year’s visit included behind-the-scenes tours of industry leaders such as the Venetian, Wynn/Encore and MGM Hakkasan; a gaming lesson at Luxor; and a meeting with Robert Casillas, president and founder of Monsoon Group, a leading nightlife group in the U.S. — Sharu Goodwyn

MEET AMERICA’S NEWEST ALMOST FAMOUS CHEF DESTINY ANTOMMARCHI ’15 has won the title of 2015 S.Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef — and a yearlong culinary apprenticeship. She was selected for the national competition after winning a regional one at the North Miami Campus in January.“This competition is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I am honored to have been chosen as this year’s winner,” says Antommarchi. “The lessons I’ve learned over the past three months will inspire and guide me as I focus on the next chapter of my career.”

THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP AND THE FIGHT TO SAVE A LIFE After being diagnosed last year with nephritis, an acute kidney disease, 2001 graduate Nick Caponegro’s health quickly deteriorated.

When his college friend Gregory Vance ’01 found out that Caponegro needed a kidney transplant, he volunteered to donate one of his and ended up being a match. Another close friend, Darryl Howard ’01, has established a GoFundMe account to help with Caponergo’s recovery.

“Nick, Greg and I met at the North Miami Campus in the fall of 1997,” says Howard. “We became instant friends and formed a connection LEFT TO RIGHT :

Professor David Edwards with students (L-R) Alexandra McDowell, Alexandra Paredes and Idabes Kirnon

nothing short of brotherhood.”

Caponegro and Vance had the surgery earlier this year; both are recovering well. — Keva Muller

www.jwu.edu

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CAMPUS NEWS WORLD’S HEAVIEST VEGAN BANANA SPLIT

A

fter the final toppings of cherries were placed on the whopping half-ton sundae, cheers erupted across the Denver Campus as JWU made history.

Chef Adam Sacks and seven culinary nutrition students created the world’s heaviest vegan banana split, a record that was submitted to Guinness World Records. Built on top of a giant custom-created ice bowl, the 1,251-pound creation was loaded with more than 700 pounds of vegan ice cream, 200 pounds of peeled bananas, and 300 pounds of vegan toppings including berries, brownies, cookies, coconut and whipped cream.

“We wanted to show the world that we can take any menu item that is laden with animal-based saturated fats and cholesterol, like a beloved banana split, and change it up, making it heart-healthier and resulting in a finished product that is unbelievably tasty,” said Sacks.

For five weeks before the big debut, students created different varieties of vegan ice cream using a nutrient dense base of beans, grain and legume milks, and fresh fruit. Some of the ice cream

ALYSON FETHEROLF AND MACY PINKUSSOHN at JWU Denver’s first graduate commencement exercises. Smiles, laughter and excitement filled the Gallery room at Denver’s Union Station as 17 graduate students were awarded their MBA degrees. The class represents JWU Denver’s first Master of Business Administration degree program. Steve Janicek, general manager of The Ritz-Carlton Denver, gave the commencement address.

flavor varieties included piña colada, chocolate mole, pumpkin cardamom, Turkish coffee, blueberry balsamic and mango ginger. — Holli Keyser

Early mornings. Bitter cold. Silence. Chaos.

The JWU team worked in guest services

Eruptions of crowds. Celebrations. Exhilara-

including checking credentials, answering

tion. These words describe the experience

questions, distributing information, assisting

of Michael Weber ’15, who, along with nine

with arrival/departure crowds and managing

other JWU Denver students, was recruited to

concert crowds.

work for ESPN’s X Games in Aspen, Colo.

“I’m proud of their hard work and even

This extreme global sports competition

prouder that they are connecting the dots

brings together 200 of the world’s best ath-

between what they learn at JWU, what they

letes and Olympians in skiing, snowboarding

see [at the X Games], and what they would

and snowmobiling — and JWU Denver was

do differently if they were in charge. In my

right in the thick of it.

opinion, this is the purest form of experiential

Games was being a part of something of

Spring 2015

Class of ’16 students with their creation. L-R: Bentley Dowdell, Caitlin McKune, Morgan Stewart, Ellen Arguinchona, Karen Sisson and Adrianna Assenti

X-TREME EX ED AT ESPN’S X GAMES

“What I liked best about working the X

6

ABOVE :

education,” said SEE Associate Professor Sean Daly.

that magnitude — we served over 100,000

This exceptional opportunity came after

guests at this event over the week,” said

Deane Swanson, senior director for the X

Weber. X Games also has a global reach and

Games, visited the Denver Campus. From

is televised in more than 192 countries to

1993–95, Swanson served as an assistant pro-

fans in 232 million homes.

fessor at JWU’s Providence Campus. —H.K.

SEE student Nicole Ligenfelder ’16 poses with Olympic freestyle skiing slope-style medalist Gus Kenworthy, following his run in the X Games ski pipe competition.

GOOD GENES THROUGH BETTER NUTRITION

SINCE ITS FOUNDING in 1973 with an enrollment of 141 students, the College of Culinary Arts

has

become

a ABOVE : The Investments and Financing the Entrepreneurial Venture classes.

worldwide leader in culinary education. Ameri-

RIGHT , L - R :

Daniel Gotte, director of Inception Micro Angel Fund (IMAF) Charlotte and Jay Bendis, president of Technology Transfer Consultants

ca’s eating habits and the food industry that drives them have evolved exponentially.

Consumers

have been blitzed by in-

SHOW ME THE MONEY

formation on what’s good and not good to eat — with so much conflicting

HE IS SO IMPRESSED WITH JWU’S STUDENTS and business

news, it’s no wonder that

programs, this “angel” is now helping teach our budding entrepre-

the public is confused.

neurs. Daniel Friel, founder of Bank of America’s Strategic Alliances

BANANA SPLIT PHOTO BY KELCEY FLEAGLE; MBA PHOTO BY RYAN DEARTH PHOTOGRAPHY; X-GAMES PHOTO BY NICOLE LIGENFELDER; PETER REINHART AND INVESTORS PHOTOS BY MELINDA LAW WESTMORELAND; DR. ZEISEL PHOTO BY TONY ULCHAR

To that end, “Johnson & Wales University is Changing the Way the World

and Investments group, was part of a panel of angel investors (afflu-

Eats” is an initiative developed to establish JWU as America’s food authority.

ent individuals who provide capital for a business startup) who

JWU partnered with the University of North Carolina (UNC) Nutrition Re-

answered questions from two classes: Investments and Fi-

search Institute in February. World-renowned nutrition scientist Steven Zei-

nancing the Entrepreneurial Venture. Several topics were ad-

sel, M.D., Ph.D., and UNC Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) director, led a

dressed, including the angel investment activity in Charlotte.

discussion with the culinary faculty on The Emerging Science of Epigenetics

The panel also discussed how to connect with angel inves-

and Its Application to Nutrition. Epigenetics is the study of how our genes

tors, how they piggyback off each other’s work and how good

can be affected by environmental factors that contribute to disease or health.

advice can be worth more than the funds being sought. Friel

Diet, stress and toxins are all factors that regulate how our genes are expressed.

said, “Every single student plans to start and run their own business.

Zeisel’s talk helped Charlotte Campus faculty understand the concepts of epi-

I love that motivation for learning.” — Melinda Law Westmoreland

genetics and explained how nutrition acts on our epigenome to switch genes on and off to make us ill or well. The NRI’s partnership with JWU is a natural fit, emphasizing the importance of nutrition in the art of cooking.

CHEF REINHART AWARDED

“This partnership will highlight Johnson & Wales’ commitment to nutrition education and promoting a healthy lifestyle through food,” says Jennifer Gallagher, associate professor and chair of the College of Culinary Arts. “Zeisel’s presentation provided the faculty with current information regarding the link between diet and health that they will be able to share with the next generation of chefs.”

The UNC Nutrition Research Institute is exploring personalized nutrition for optimal health. NRI pioneering research is replacing the outdated one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition by discovering why people metabolize food so differently and require differing amounts of essential nutrients.

Dr. Zeisel said, “The NRI is pleased to be a partner with JWU to help dissem-

Chef-on-Assignment Peter Reinhart has been named to Dessert Professional Magazine’s Hall of Fame. Peter is also assignments editor for the upcoming “Modernist Cuisine” book slated for publication this fall.

inate the outcomes of our nutrition research to those who will directly affect the way people choose to eat.”

–– Melinda Law Westmoreland

www.jwu.edu

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ATHLETICS

1

A Local Hero

BY JOHN PARENTE

He sits within mere feet of the basketball court at JWU Providence’s Wildcat Center, where he performed the bulk of his extraordinary exploits.

H

E’S WITHIN A few steps from where his extraordinary work ethic and dedication once propelled him to the national collegiate basketball scoring championship, where he became an All-American, and where he and his Johnson & Wales teammates became champions.

He has since taken his talents to Germany and Spain. In 2014, he led a German professional basketball league in scoring, wowing crowds with the same slicing moves to the basket and deadeye precision from outside the arc as he did in Providence.

But over the past two summers, former Wildcat captain Lamonte Thomas ’13 is back home to refocus on his future and give back to the Providence community in which he grew up.

Though it’s expected he’ll be out again to play elsewhere, in Europe, the Mideast or Scandanavia, the man who led all of college basketball in scoring in 2011 and helped Johnson & Wales into the NCAA Division III basketball tournament wanted to first give back

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Spring 2015

to those who inspire him to still become the best he can be.

The 6’2” guard came to JWU after a rather unheralded high school career but flourished during a prolific tenure as a Wildcat. He credits his passion for the game and an unquenchable thirst for the top of his profession as the vehicles for his achievement.

He is sitting under a mammoth photo of himself that hangs in the rafters of the Wildcat Center foyer. In it, he is dribbling against Brown University in 2012, with eyes filled with focus and determination.

He fully appreciates the honor bestowed upon him. “When I was young, I came to watch the games,” says Thomas. “I was a kid from South Providence. I wanted to play college basketball, and when I got the chance at JWU, it was a big deal for me.”

It was also a big deal for Johnson & Wales’ basketball program. Thomas set JWU’s all-time scoring record with an astonishing 2,705 points.

That figure is also the Great Northeast Athletic Conference’s all-time scoring mark. On

February 24, 2011, he wrote a page in Wildcat folklore by being responsible for 80 points in a single game, scoring 40 himself while dishing out 20 assists against another GNAC powerhouse at the time, Albertus Magnus College.

Two winters ago, Thomas played for MTV Herzoge Wolfenbuettel in the German Basketball Pro B League as a launching pad toward what he hopes will eventually become a spot in the National Basketball Association’s Developmental League. He was outstanding, leading the entire league in scoring with 25.3 points per game. Scoring more than 20 points in all but six of his team’s games, he poured in 54 one night, and had three games in which he scored more than 40 points. He also ranked ninth in assists.

Last December, Thomas moved on to play pro ball in Spain for Zumosol Alcorcon, a league team. Again, he flourished, averaging 24 points in the 18 games in which he played. The team’s starting point guard, he scored over 20 points in all but four games and tallied more than 30 points on four occasions.

PHOTOS 3-6 BY TOM MAGUIRE

2

3

4

5

6

[1] Former NCAA Division III All-American Lamonte Thomas ’13 took his game from the Wildcat Center to a German professional basketball league in 2014.

[2] Thomas, who led all divisions of the NCAA in scoring in 2012 and 2013, drives to the hoop in an intra-city contest against Division I Brown University in 2012.

[3], [4], [5] Thomas holds both the Johnson & Wales and Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) scoring records with 2,705 points. His accute accuracy and myriad moves to the basket created headaches for Norwich and the rest of the GNAC. [6] Thomas enjoys a light moment at a 2013 Wildcat practice.

He realizes there’s a long and unknown road ahead that won’t come easy. Still, he knows his European experiences built a solid foundation, and he’s ready for what lies ahead. “Beating the language barrier was easier than I thought,” he says. “I was more and more comfortable as time went on. The crowds were great … a lot of young kids and grandparents” he recounted. “But I think they like their soccer more.”

For now, though, Thomas helps Providence youngsters achieve whatever dreams they have within their sights through the Lamonte Thomas Skills Academy, a rather demanding two-week basketball clinic for 12-to-18-yearolds in the capital city. “It’s designed to be much more intense than regular youth basketball clinics,” he says. “We’re finding new ways of teaching the game, and what it takes to be successful.

“Everything is structured, right down to the minute,” Thomas adds. “Fortunately, I have some contacts in college and professional basketball who come in to speak and instruct,

but this camp is much more physically and mentally intensive than the camps we ran in Germany. The goal is not to just give them a few pointers. It’s to give them as much as we can about the game, and the hard work it takes to have a successful career in and out of basketball.

But we want them to leave us with a sense of accomplishment.”

Thomas spends whatever spare time he gets in the off-season working out with another aspiring NBA pro from Rhode Island, close friend Rick Ledo, who was signed by the San Antonio Spurs. “I push Ricky, he pushes me. We both realize that basketball is our full-time job now and neither of us wants to fail. Doubt is motivation, and hard work beats talent,” he says philosophically, glancing again at the banner in the foyer.

Then there’s the time management and the discipline to the vision, things Thomas says he learned and honed at JWU. “I had a great support system here,” he says. “When I got to Johnson & Wales, I was a punk. Coach [Jamie] Benton and Coach [Mike] Reed, my teammates,

the people in the department — everybody was positive, but they pushed me, motivated me … they made me work real hard, maybe even harder in class than on the court.”

That’s saying something. When Thomas played at JWU, he got to the gym on the Harborside Campus when it opened, worked out until his first class, squeezed in a few shots or played in a pickup game until his next class, and came back in time for practice: “That’s how I learned to manage my time.”

Sitting next to that Wildcat banner, Thomas, now 25, realizes that things in his life are happening quickly. “It’s my time,” he says, passionately wanting that second tryout with the NBA Developmental League. “Oh, that will happen.”

Next winter, he’ll be back in a foreign land, wowing crowds, scoring seemingly at will, learning another new culture, maybe another new language, and working tirelessly to bring his game to the next level.

For now, though, Lamonte Thomas is home, in Providence, back at JWU, gazing at the banner — and he’s happy.

www.jwu.edu

9

Profiles in Success Winston S. Churchill said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” The 13 alumni profiled on the following pages have taken risks that ultimately led to their success. According to restaurant executive Paul Damico ’86, his employees are entrusted with the freedom to make mistakes because “the lessons learned make us a better company.” Whether they are rising stars or well-established in their respective careers, some have had to tack off-course when adversity struck. They chose to perceive those challenges as opportunities rather than obstacles, which may be the true secret of their incredible achievements.

Sean Gilligan, Betsy Hansen, Robert Rathe and Nat Rea Contributors: Denise Dowling, Philip Eil, Melinda Hill, Mary Sward and Damaris R. Teixeira Photogr aphs by:

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Spring 2015

Nikki Klebieko ’92 A.S. Fashion Merchandising Owner, PRK Drilling & Blasting Inc. Winchester, Va. Today Nikki Klebieko runs a multimillion-dollar business — but two decades ago, she felt like “a complete loser.” After cutbacks equaled being let go from a retail merchandising position, Klebieko’s father said she could work at his company, PRK Drilling & Blasting, which blasts rock for private and government projects including buildings, roads and utilities.

“I was 22, on track to my dream job as a buyer for Bloomingdale’s and suddenly I’m answering phones for my dad! But small businesses offer a world of opportunity; I embraced all of them, which is something that Johnson & Wales promotes.” She learned to define success and failure based on her own values. “If I make a million bucks but my life is broken, that’s not success. Within my circle of value are my company, my family and my philanthropy; my husband and I founded a philanthropic club. I consider myself a social entrepreneur; making a profit is not evil because a lot of good can come from it. You don’t have to choose between being Mother Teresa or Donald Trump.”

She credits JWU with teaching her to think “outside the textbook. My first classes were about designers and fabrics. My friends were studying boring stuff like English and math while I was doing fashion merchandising at the university department store.”

The switch from high heels to hard hats made her invaluable when tragedy struck. Klebieko was 27 when her father was paralyzed following a car accident. “The first thing my father said in the ICU was, ‘Nik, we still have a business to run.’ I was honored but the pressure was out of this world.”

She and her husband submerged themselves in running the company – while becoming new parents. In 2004, she purchased the business from her father. “I can walk into a meeting with 100 men and know I might not be treated as an equal, but I never feel less than them. Being male gives them automatic credibility in this industry; I just have to be smarter.”

www.jwu.edu

11

Joy Liu ’12 B.S. Advertising and Marketing Communications Account Executive, BBDO New York, N.Y. There is a photo on Joy Liu’s LinkedIn® page showing six humanoid M&Ms — characters like “Blue” and “Ms. Brown,” whom you’ll recognize if you’ve flicked on a TV in the last 25 years — underneath the note, “I manage these guys.” As an account executive at one of the world’s largest ad firms, Liu acts as a liaison between BBDO and its clients, which, in this case, involves being on a first-name basis with Mars Inc.’s bite-sized celebrities. “Red is the leader of the pack; he’s the cocky, confident one,” Liu explains. “Orange is your classic neurotic who is extra afraid of being eaten.”

This is life at Liu’s dream job, which she describes as “the intersection between pop culture and business.”

And it’s hard to imagine a better training ground than the one Liu found at Johnson & Wales. While maintaining a 3.8 GPA in her degree classes, she completed internships at the local ad agency, Duffy & Shanley, and one of the city’s most prominent arts organizations, WaterFire Providence. She helped brands like JC Penny and Nissan hone their message to younger consumers as an ad team member.

These days, Liu isn’t just working on time-tested campaigns; she’s pushing advertising into new territory.

She was part of a team that produced an unconventional Valentine’s Day campaign for Dove Chocolate.

The ads, which Liu describes as three-minute romantic comedies, ran on social media instead of a major TV network, and featured real people instead of actors. Together, the three videos have clocked over 1,000,000 combined views, between Facebook and YouTube.

Liu credits JWU with prepping her for advertising’s big leagues. In Providence, you can be a “big fish in a small pond,” she says, pointing to her interactions with the mayor and major corporate sponsors while interning at WaterFire. You don’t have to go reaching far for exciting and rewarding opportunities at JWU. “They’re sitting right next to you.”

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Spring 2015

Brenda Dann-Messier ’00 Ed.D. Educational Leadership Education and Workforce Consultant; Adjunct Faculty, JWU East Greenwich, R.I. When Brenda Dann-Messier went to Washington, D.C., she brought a binder full of letters from Rhode Island. The year was 2009 and she was shifting from a decade as president of Providence’s Dorcas Place Adult and Family Learning Center to a White House-nominated, Senate-confirmed position as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), where she would manage 85 employees and a $1.7 billion budget.

The letters, addressed to President Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, came from former Dorcas Place students, who explained their reasons for pursuing adult education and described their future dreams. Dann-Messier kept them on her desk at the new job, and “when the bureaucracy got to be tough and inflexible, I would remember that I was there really to support the students and to help them reach their goals.”

Her achievements in Washington are now a matter of public record.

Dann-Messier’s name appears next to Duncan’s on landmark policy documents like “Investing in America’s Future: A Blueprint for Transforming Career and Technical Education,” and “A Reentry Education Model: Supporting Education and Career Advancement for Low-Skill Individuals In Corrections.” She represented the United States at international conferences, while also making frequent domestic trips to, say, a prison in Maryland or a community college in El Paso.

Nowadays, Dann-Messier is back in Rhode Island, working as an independent consultant and co-teaching a class on community and family engagement at the same JWU program from which she graduated 15 years ago. Its experiential, cohort-based program is a model for “really preparing leaders for real-life experience,” not simply dispensing lofty, abstract ideas.

That’s high praise from someone who has been around the world and back to discuss education policy.

www.jwu.edu

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Tom Conte ‘09 B.S. Web Management and Internet Commerce S.E.O. Specialist Time Inc. New York, N.Y. Tom Conte’s professional life since graduating from Johnson & Wales can be summed up by three letters: S.E.O. “Search Engine Optimization,” for those who aren’t fluent in Internet-ese, is the pursuit of the top spot in web searches. It’s a field that has grown exponentially in recent years, and it’s Conte’s area of expertise, having honed his craft with the legal info and business solutions firm, LexisNexis; the New York Citybased interactive marketing firm, Morpheus Media; and, most recently, the venerable print-media company, Time Inc. The hundreds of factors that affect a website’s search results are constantly in flux, Conte explains. “Something that I recommended perhaps even a month ago could be obsolete. It’s like a big puzzle that needs to be solved, over and over and over again.”

At Morpheus, this meant training writers at a Long Island newspaper to re-think headlines in order to attract more eyeballs to their articles.

At Time Inc., it means re-designing Food & Wine’s website to make it more smartphone-friendly, which, in turn, makes it more Google-friendly.

Conte, 28, says that all of this work rests on a foundation built at JWU, where he learned web development and design skills and worked with creative professors who “pushed me to think outside of the box.”

So, you’re surely wondering, what happens when you Google the name “Tom Conte”? The first six results are links to websites that relate to another tech-savvy — but considerably older — Tom Conte, a computer science professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. The younger Tom Conte’s website and Twitter account show up after that, near the bottom of the first page. (His Twitter bio reads, “Full time nerd.”)

But those search results, like so much in the digital world, are subject to change. “I don’t think I’m important enough to have a Wikipedia page,” Conte says, before adding, “Not yet.”

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Spring 2015

Chris Santos ’93 B.S. Food Service Management Partner and Chef The Stanton Social; Beauty & Essex New York, N.Y. Everyone has to start somewhere, no matter how successful you may later become. That start for chef, restaurateur and television personality Chris Santos was at a restaurant in his hometown of Bristol, R.I. “I was 14, on my first day as a dishwasher, and the head chef quit,” he says. “Walked out in the middle of service. So the owner had to cook and it was a mess.

“She sent me to the walk-in for the marinara sauce, and told me to put it in the microwave. I set it for five minutes, and went back to washing dishes,” he continues. “The owner yelled for me to bring the marinara, and when I grabbed it from the microwave, it was like lava. So hot that I dropped it and it splattered all over and I burned myself badly. But I got a crazy rush from the whole thing and I came back.”

From that hot mess, Santos has gone on to build a blockbuster career that includes opening three restaurants in New York City, a regular judging gig on Food Network’s “Chopped” and many television appearances as a guest chef.

The 44-year-old opened his first restaurant, Wyanoka, when he was 29 years old. He was out of business by the time he was 30. “It got me my first great review in The New York Times,” Santos says. “But I wasn’t prepared for when 9/11 happened.

There was no wiggle room.”

Described by The Times as having “an imagination and a talent that shines,” Santos learned from the experience and opened two mega-successful restaurants on the Lower East Side: The Stanton Social and its newer sister restaurant, Beauty & Essex.

“We call Beauty & Essex the grownup Stanton because the menu is a little more formal,” he says. “It takes street food, comfort food, even junk food, and makes them more sophisticated.”

www.jwu.edu

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Amy Sacco ’90 B.S. Marketing Hospitality Entrepreneur New York, N.Y. “Den mother to the jet set” Amy Sacco operates the kind of clubs where celebrities can party without crash-landing in the tabloids. “I have built a reputation for being fair, honest and protective of all my guests,” she says. Even New York City’s undercover cops couldn’t get inside to scope the shenanigans at her legendary Bungalow 8 in New York City, where a no-camera policy was sometimes physically enforced by Sacco herself. Currently the founder of No.8, another Chelsea establishment, creative director of LDV Hospitality, the force behind the RecRoom in Vegas and Aspen, etc.., Sacco mourns the halcyon days before Manhattan was scrubbed clean: “NYC used to stand for ‘Naughty’ and ‘Cool’. We have lost so much of our city that never sleeps culture.”

As the youngest of eight children, the 47-year-old Jersey girl learned to charm and “roll with the flow since you didn’t always get your way.” But she was never the runt of the litter: Standing 6’1”(without stilettos) makes her a formidable hostess.

Supernova acquaintances offer their private jets and villas, but Sacco prudently maintains a professional distance “because then someone will ask for a favor 10 times bigger.

I never forget that I am providing a service to my guests. Although I can put myself in their shoes and empathize, I am there to serve and protect, not to ‘be them.’ ” Despite her clubs’ exclusivity — some are members only — Sacco claims she’s not elitist; her guests are cool people, but not because they’re famous. “I am just as thrilled to see my plumber since he is hilarious as I am to see a celebrity, and our longterm loyal following knows this and feels the same way.”

Sacco, who earned two associate degrees and a bachelor’s degree from JWU, credits her degrees for cultivating employers’ trust when she began in the hospitality industry.

“They like to see that you have committed yourself and are serious about your craft.”

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Spring 2015

Andrea Scoli ’90 B.S. Retail Marketing & Management Senior Vice President of Sales, Halston Westchester County, N.Y When Andrea Scoli was a senior at Johnson & Wales, she bought a copy of Vogue, pulled out the ads for companies she liked and called their headquarters to ask for the personnel department or the CEO. She wound up with a handful of interviews, which yielded three internship offers, and the internship she accepted ultimately turned into her first job. She would become a VP of sales at another company — the clothing line Laundry, by Shelli Segal — before age 30.

These days, after holding high-level jobs at a number of companies — including a two-year stint as president of the musician and actress Jennifer Lopez’s clothing line, Sweetface — Scoli, 47, is an executive at the iconic brand Halston. The company’s namesake, Iowa-born Roy Halston Frowick, was one of the iconic designers Scoli studied at Johnson & Wales. He was “the first American designer that the world considered the equivalent of Chanel and Gucci and those big European brands,” she says.

Scoli’s definition of success has evolved over her career. In her twenties, it was tied to her title, rank and salary. In her thirties, she judged it by measuring her impact on the fashion world, in terms of how she could grow a company’s sales numbers. Those things are still important to her, but work-life balance is also important.

When she returns home from Manhattan at 7:30 or 8 p.m. it’s time to start her second job — raising her kids.

Speaking of success, Scoli attributes hers to JWU. From learning about fashion history in the classroom, to training at the university-owned department store, Gladding’s, in Providence, the experience gave her a competitive advantage when she entered the professional world.

She even credits the cold-calls to executives that she made to her alma mater. “I was not playing around,” she says. “I went right to the top of organizations to try to get myself in the door.

And I learned all that at Johnson & Wales.”

www.jwu.edu

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Lenny DeGeorge ’93 B.S. Food Service Management Executive Chef, Concept Development Walt Disney Parks & Resorts U.S. Orlando, Fla. Of the 160,000 people in 40 countries who work for The Walt Disney Company, Lenny DeGeorge says he has the best job because his position allows him to indulge in his passions: food, travel and culture. By the time DeGeorge and his team are brought in on a new concept, “there’s a whole storyline that’s already been developed.” From there it’s a two-tothree year process to complete each concept.

DeGeorge’s favorite part of the project is researching the food and culture at locations relevant to the restaurants’ theme. “The travel piece is just amazing,” he says. “Food and research are strong passions of mine.

I watch all these shows — like Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” — about people who travel the world and with my job I hope to experience some of these things.”

DeGeorge has opened concepts ranging from Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa in Ko Olina, Hawaii, to an African- and Indian-inspired restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge in Florida. He’s also putting his thumbprint on kitchens in the works in Shanghai and Tokyo Disneyland.

When DeGeorge talks about his work, it’s obvious how magical he finds it: “Every project we work on is new; it’s the cart or kiosk for a busy area on up to a large restaurant. I love the ability to deliver an amazing experience. If it’s a sausage sandwich I want the bread to be warm and crispy and to be as good a food experience as they’ve ever had.”

DeGeorge began his Disney career shortly after graduation. He had already gained some experience at a Sheraton Hotel before enrolling at JWU, where he worked as both a teaching assistant and a fellow.

“At the (former) Pine Street Coffee House and University Club we served over a thousand meals a day,” he recalls. “The experience I got running some of the student dining facilities was invaluable.”

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Spring 2015

M. John Martin ’86 A.S. Culinary Arts; ’06 Hon. President of The Capital Grille and Eddie V’s Prime Seafood Darden Restaurants Inc. Orlando, Fla. As a restaurant executive, John Martin has hired hundreds of JWU students and alumni — including a former teacher. “Brian Foye was a teaching assistant who gave me a B as a final grade,” Martin recalls. “I told him I felt I deserved an A and he responded, ‘Mr. Martin, I didn’t give you that grade, you earned it.’ Several years later, Brian walked in for an interview with Capital Grille. When I realized who he was, I said, ‘I remember you, you were that teacher who gave me a B!’ He said, ‘I didn’t give you a B, you earned that B.’ I ended up hiring him, if only to get my revenge.”

At 54, Martin’s management style has evolved to accommodate millennials and their motivations. “Instead of saying, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ you must explain why you’re doing it and discuss the big picture. I used to take it more personally when people would question me, but now I’ve learned to change my opinions.”

His company has also adapted to higher minimum wages, the Affordable Care Act, and what he surmises could be the biggest issue: tips and tip credit. “I think the restaurant industry is going to look completely different in five to ten years, with more fast-casual restaurants. I think there will always be great restaurants where people want to sit down, but labor laws will heavily shape how the more day-to-day restaurants operate.

“What’s most rewarding is the employee impact we’ve had over 25 years. There are people who started as dishwashers and became executive chefs, going from minimum wage to more than $100,000 a year.

Those opportunities can change the trajectory of people’s lives — they can buy a house, move to a better school district, send their kids to college — it’s the American dream. The restaurant industry is one of the few businesses where you can still start at an entry-level position and literally work your way to the top.”

www.jwu.edu

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Sarah Cirelli ’07 B.S. Marketing Interactive Marketing Manager, WithumSmith+Brown (WS+B) Red Bank, N.J. Soon after she was hired at the accounting firm WithumSmith +Brown, in 2007, Sarah Cirelli met with CEO Bill Hagaman. “I think it’s time we start introducing social media into our marketing strategy,” she told him. The firm had no social media accounts and computers were blocked from accessing YouTube.

“And what he heard was me saying that I wanted 400 of his billable professionals to start playing online.”

Fast forward to today, when visitors to withum.com are greeted by links to the company’s six social media accounts — all launched and managed by the 29-year-old Cirelli. WS+B recently used Instagram to release 40 short videos to celebrate the firm’s 40th anniversary. Its annual YouTube “State of the Firm” videos have become legendary in the accounting world. In 2012, Cirelli produced a seven-minute clip of WS+B staffers dancing and lip-synching to LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” in a New York City subway car, before forming a flash mob in front of a midtown skyscraper. The video has been viewed over 66,000 times, with one comment reading, “LOL now I want to be an accountant.”

As a marketing student at Johnson & Wales, “an accounting firm was probably the last place I thought I would end up.” But she’s learned that less obvious marketing fields can provide some of the most exciting opportunities. For the last two years, Accounting Today has placed Cirelli on its “Top 100 Most Influential People in the Accounting Industry,” praising how she pushes “WS+B to boldly go where no firms have gone before in social media.” In 2014, Cirelli was one of 1,000 guests chosen to attend Forbes’ inaugural “Under 30 Summit.”

As for the skeptical CEO? He’s the one in a suit and tie in the “Party Rock Anthem” video, waving his arms and jumping up and down, as astonished tourists snap photos.

According to Cirelli, “He’s starred in every one of our videos.”

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Spring 2015

Paul Damico ’86 B.S. Hotel Restaurant Institutional Management Executive Vice President and Group President at FOCUS Brands Inc. Atlanta, Ga. Paul Damico was inspired early on to be a steward for employees. When his younger brother, infected with hepatitis, needed a lifesaving liver transplant, his father’s boss offered a corporate jet to transfer the family to the hospital when a donor became available. “I give back with time and money whenever I can, which influences others to do the same,” says the executive. “I want to be remembered as the person who provided opportunity and helped a lot of people reach their personal and professional goals.”

After the 50-year-old appeared on “Undercover Boss,” he gave $280,000 in corporate dollars to five employees of Moe’s Southwest Grill, where “Do the right thing” is a guiding principle.

“We teach people they are empowered to take care of employees and customers without going through red tape,” says Damico. “We encourage them not to be afraid of making mistakes.”

Damico studies millennials to become a better manager. Since many eschew the typical 9-5, he is flexible about scheduling provided the work gets done: “I have about a one percent turnover on the corporate level; it’s a win-win because it costs a lot to train someone new.”

When he joined Moe’s in 2008, franchising was stagnant: “I capitalized on the opportunity to rebuild and retool the brand. We established a food mission and built training and operations teams in preparation for growth. It took 18 months to get the comps positive.”

Success is measured against the prior year’s performance: “Are we growing the brand and selling more franchises?” His division has 1,300 locations, puts nearly two restaurants in the ground per week, and generates approximately $1.6 billion in annual revenue. When he’s not traveling, the marathoner is at his desk by 7 a.m. — a workhorse ethic he polished at JWU: “I experienced what it was going to be like on the outside during my time there. Other people say they’re going to school, but I called it working eight hours a day.”

www.jwu.edu

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Jill Guindon-Nasir ’97 B.S. Hospitality Senior Corporate Director Global Learning Solutions and Organizational Development The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center Washington, D.C. “A title has nothing to do with leadership,” says Jill Guindon-Nasir.

“Just because you have authority doesn’t mean people believe in you.”

People want a leader they can trust.

Leadership is about taking risks, she adds: “You don’t win or lose, you either win or you learn.”

Guindon-Nasir navigated that tightrope after researching the transference of service excellence best practices from the hospitality to the healthcare industry. She had to convince key stakeholders — some of whom felt The Ritz-Carlton should stick to hotels — that a hotel could impact hospitals. As she created its healthcare services advisory board, Guindon-Nasir was on the cusp of a the healthcare sector boom.

This pioneer creates job roles; she has never held a position that belonged to a predecessor. When she heard The Ritz-Carlton planned to build a hotel in Washington, D.C., where she lived, she put its headquarters on speed dial and was hired when the building was still a blueprint: “I wore a construction hat to work.”

What advice does Guindon-Nasir, who also has a doctorate in education, have for alumni wading into a competitive job market? “You gotta have grit and not wait around for someone to promote you; high performers create their own opportunities.” Guindon-Nasir says she can always spot a JWU graduate: “They aspire to be the general manager, but don’t believe they deserve it tomorrow. They’re not afraid to get their hands dirty because they worked during school.” As a student, Guindon-Nasir loved JWU’s family-feel: The accessible faculty truly wanted students to succeed. Plus, they combined academic expertise with industry experience. “Not every school has that,” says the woman with a run-on sentence of degrees.

“Both need to coexist.”

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Spring 2015

Angelo Pitassi Jr. ’03 MBA Financial Management CEO/Founder of HealthID Profile Inc. Cranston, R.I. Innovative solutions to everyday problems are not easy to find. When they are discovered, it takes courage and vision to see them through. For Angelo Pitassi Jr., it began when his youngest son, then two-and-a-half, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.

His son needed a medical ID bracelet to alert responders, teachers and other parents of his condition in case of emergency. Pitassi, unhappy with what he considered low quality bands and limited space for information, designed his own bracelet. His son has been wearing one ever since. He’s not alone; today HealthID has more than 1,500 customers.

After designing a medical ID with an interchangeable band, he realized that adding a technology component would expand its interactivity and usefulness.

Although Pitassi, 42, has a background in jewelry design and sales, creating a product focused on personal health management presented new challenges: “Because of the space limitation for information on other bands, we coupled it with a cloud-based storage solution. Now users can create an account online and input necessary medical information. We’ve also added a unique personal identifier so users and medical responders can immediately pull up the medical information with a SmartPhone.”

To protect his invention, Pitassi researched the patent process and hired an attorney who specializes in the medical and technology field: “Technology is never an easy thing to patent.” Today the product focuses on three key areas: medication compliance, chronic disease management and efficient communication of personal medical information in an emergency or a routine doctor visit.

“We want to put a different spin on the personal health management world and erase any stigma,” says Pitassi. “We want something that’s more trendy, socially acceptable and fashionable.” HealthID bands are getting noticed. Entrepreneur magazine recently featured the ID band and app as one of five smart products to watch.

www.jwu.edu

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RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT POINDEXTER GIFT SUPPORTS BASKETBALL PLAYERS AND THE GAME During his days as dean of academic affairs, Larry Rice, Ed.D., ’90, interim president of the North Miami Campus, remembers Rudolph Poindexter ’02 as having a quick smile and an entrepreneurial spirit: “He was always friendly … and motivated.”

Poindexter took advantage of every opportunity, leveraged his involvement and saw the importance of joining campus clubs and organizations. It was basketball, however, that gave Poindexter his greatest thrill.

L-R: Carl Curtiss ’85, Cherry Hill store manager; Aria Allen, Princeton employee; Chef Trent O’Drain, New Jersey division regional chef; Bill Congdon Jr., New England division manager; Chancellor John J. Bowen ’77; Chef Dan Tartaglia, New England division regional chef; Jeff Monahan, New England division staffing coordinator representative

WEGMANS SCHOLARSHIP HONORS LONG HISTORY BETWEEN FOOD MARKET INDUSTRY LEADER AND JWU

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or more than two decades, JWU graduates have been finding their way to Wegmans. Their journey hasn’t necessarily landed them behind a shopping cart, but rather behind the counters in positions ranging from chef de cuisine and sous chef to executive chef and general manager. The variety of positions at Wegmans reflects the fact that the company offers a unique store model, similar to a European open-air market, and includes restaurants and prepared food stalls.

In 2014, Fortune named Wegmans one of the top 100 best companies to work for. For JWU graduates, this statement has been prophetic, with more than 90 of them employed by the company in 2014 alone. Nine JWU graduates were included in the managers-in-training program last year. This spring, Wegmans conducted interviews on the Providence Campus and the Virginia Wegmans supermarket held a recruiting session on the Charlotte Campus.

As a salute to the university from which many of its employees graduated, the company has established the Wegmans Scholarship with a gift of

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$250,000. “Wegmans’ mission is to help our customers make great meals easy so they can live healthier, better lives,” said Jim Schaeffer, Wegmans’ vice president of culinary operations.

“To deliver on that promise, we must attract and develop the best culinary talent. Our hope for this scholarship is that it encourages the pursuit of culinary education from a top-notch school.” As a result of the gift, $50,000 a year over the next five years will be awarded to students on the Providence Campus majoring in culinary arts.

Wegmans Food Markets Inc. is a family-owned U.S. regional supermarket chain headquartered near Rochester, N.Y., with more than 85 stores in the mid-Atlantic and New England regions. It employs more than 44,000 people and posted $7.4 billion in sales in 2014. Founded in 1916 by brothers John and Walter Wegman as the Rochester Vegetable and Fruit Company, the company is currently managed by family members Danny Wegman as CEO and his daughter Colleen Wegman as president. The stores are noted for their excellent food at affordable prices and incomparable customer service. — Julia S. Emlen

Rudy Pointdexter ’02 with his wife Anetra.

One and one equals two. In Poindexter’s case, this has meant combining his enthusiasm for his alma mater with his passion for basketball. Poindexter has returned to campus to speak in a classroom, visit faculty and attend the Athletics Reunion every January. He decided in December 2014 to extend his investment in the university by making a gift that combined scholarship support for a basketball player and funds for the team itself. Since his graduation he has remained close to Rice and his basketball coach, David Graham, both of whom helped him decide how to aid the university.

As Poindexter noted, “I could not have imagined when I walked onto the North Miami Campus in September 1998 that just being there would have changed my life in so many ways. My professors, my coach, my teammates and Dr. Rice helped shape who I am as a business professional, a man and a father. I owe so much to JWU; it is only fitting that I give back a portion of the invaluable educational and life experiences that are part of being a member of the JWU family.” — Julia S. Emlen

LES CLEFS D’OR USA HONORS MARJORIE SILVERMAN AND SUPPORTS JWU STUDY ABROAD

REMEMBERING CHEF SHANE H. PEARSON ’97

athan Goff ’02 plus Les Clefs d’Or USA equals a $5,000 fund at JWU to support students who wish to study abroad through university -approved hospitality programs. It all started in 2001 with a three-month internship at a hotel in Greece that transformed Goff ’s vision of his career: “Working at a hotel in another country brought together all the lessons I had learned at JWU. Study abroad is an opportunity that every student should have; it can make all the difference in the professionalism of a concierge.”

Goff is now chef concierge at the Boston Harbor Hotel, and when he became vice president and treasurer with Les Clefs

“Dean, I am just trying to get these students into the kitchen; they will love cooking.” For Charlotte Campus Culinary Dean Jerry Lanuzza ’91, this quote epitomizes the approach that Chef Shane Pearson ’97 took to his cooking and his teaching. His passion and enthusiasm for his profession is remembered for much more that than that as well, as illustrated by the outpouring of gifts to the Chef Shane H. Pearson ’97 Memorial Scholarship, which was established in January to remember Pearson, who passed away on December 30, 2014. Mavis Pearson, Chef Pearson’s mother, noted that “Shane loved JWU and would spend hours talking to prospective students, their parents and anyone who would listen about the benefits of a JWU education. He’d be pleased to know that his memory will live on with the scholarship.”

Please call Darlena Goodwin, Charlotte Campus director of development and alumni relations, at 980-598-1007 for information on ways to make a gift in honor of Chef Shane Pearson.

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d’Or USA, he was determined to find a way for the organization to support JWU students who are seeking to follow in his steps with a hospitality internship in another country. Les Clef d’Or USA, which promotes the technical skills and professionalism of hotel concierges, the hotel industry and tourism in general, was a perfect match to support his goal of promoting study abroad. The fund honors Marjorie Silverman, who was chef concierge at Hotel InterContinental in Chicago and the first woman and first American to serve as president of the Union Internationale des Concierges d’Hotels, the parent organization of Les Clef’s d’Or. Bon voyage.

— Julia S. Emlen

BABETTE’S FEAST PHOTO BY DON CHILDEARS; POINTDEXTER PHOTO BY ELIZABETH SCANLON; WEGMAN PHOTO BY STEVE SHIPLEY

AN AUTHENTIC RECREATION OF BABETTE’S FEAST IN DENVER

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Gourmet” radio show; Brad and n March 20, an inTherese Zuercher, Denver parents timate group of honand scholarship donors; retiring ored guests assemChef-Instructor Peter Henkel, C.E.C., bled in the Dick and daughter, Kristen; Matt Vawter, Saunders Dining executive chef at Denver’s newest Room of the College of Culinary Arts Union Station hotspot, Mercantile on the Denver Campus to savor a Dining & Provision; and Burton dining experience that most had Hobson ’02 Hon., former national only dreamed of — an authentic president of the Chaîne des recreation of the famed meal in the Rôtisseurs. Hobson noted, “It really Oscar-winning film, “Babette’s was an outstanding accomplishment Feast.” to have gotten all those courses — inThe ambitious dinner was a labor of cluding the so important small details love for instructor Robert Corey ’15 Past honorary degree recipients enjoy Babette’s Feast. From L-R: Pat “Gabby” Miller ’05 Hon., Burton Hobson ’02 Hon., Chef Robert Corey MBA ’15, President — just right. The Clos Vougeot wine MBA, C.E.C., and his team of chef as- Robin Krakowsky ’88, Linda Childears ’10 Hon., and Joe Blake ’05 Hon. was excellent and a rare treat.” sistants, teaching assistants and felIn the film, once the meal concludes the viewer understands that the lows. They spent several months planning, sourcing and pairing the food was not only prepared for the diners’ enjoyment, but for the chef’s distinct ingredients and courses, including the potage à la tortue, blini satisfaction as well. “It was not just for you,” Babette says to the hosts. demidoff au caviar, and the famed caille en sarcophagi avec sauce She has sacrificed everything to make her guests happy and her fulfillperigourdine. The meal was topped off with a delicious babas au rhum ment comes from their pleasure. Chef Corey said it this way: “The avec les figues that was prepared tableside. It would be difficult to think reason for preparing and serving this meal comes from the movie itself. of another meal that is more divine in its execution, more perfect in its To me, Babette’s Feast is about the transformative power of communal symbolism or more award-worthy than Babette’s Feast. dining. The attendees at the table in the movie were moved — to laugh The dinner was hosted by Denver Campus President Robin and cry, to forgive and forget, to love and live. Is this not what the blessKrakowsky ’88, and guests included Linda Childears ’10 Hon., CEO of ings of dining bring to the table? We cook to make people happy.” the Daniels Fund; Joe Blake ’05 Hon., former chancellor of Colorado — Kara Johnston State University; Pat “Gabby” Miller ’05 Hon., host of “The Gabby

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ALL–CLASS

REUNION The Second Annual All–Class Reunion was held on the Providence Campus April 24–26. More than 400 guests were able to see and hear about the transformations on each of the campuses; tour the new exhibition at the Culinary Museum; sample offerings from local and national alumni chefs at Taste of JWU; enjoy the Big Party in the former dormitory Bell Hall turned Hotel Providence; and reminisce with former classmates and faculty.

Reunions and homecomings are a special celebration of our personal and professional relationships; we invite you to save the date for our upcoming events so you can share your memories.

SAVE THE DATE HOMECOMING October 16 –18, 2015 Charlotte Campus ATHLETIC HOMECOMING October 16 –18, 2015 Denver Campus ALUMNI HOMECOMING & ATHLETES REUNION January 29 – 31, 2016 North Miami Campus ATHLETES HOMECOMING October 16 –18, 2015 Providence Campus

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left to right, top to bottom:

1. Rogelio Yearwood ’73 and Michael Sirianni ’79 2. Anne Marie McCormack ’90 and Andrea Raymond ’94, ’08. 3. Christopher Alexis ’90 and Professor Donna Faria ’80, ’90 M.S. 4. Paul Damico ’86 5. Lisa Rolff ’84, Gwen Murphy ’84 and Heidi Lutz ’84 6. Students at Taste of JWU 7. A Rememberance 8. Professor Donna Faria ’80,’90 M.S. with former students 9. Pavan Nayini ’07 and Michelle Woodland ’07 10. Anne Lownes ’55 11. Treats from Bistro du Midi 12. Barbie Marshall ’04 and Kevin Spraga ’03 13. Mary Hall ’81 with her daughter and granddaughter 14. Steve Kovats and James Major ’90 15. Andy Husbands ’92 16. Michael Fanion ’13 and Sean Bufalo ’13.

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MORE ALL– CLASS REUNION

left to right, top to bottom: 1. Offerings from Libations – Radisson Hotel 2. Julius Searight ’13 and Kevin Spraga ’03 3. Kristina Testa-Buzzee ’14 Ed.D, Jason Pina ’09 Ed.D., Cynthia Ward and Thomas DiPaola 4. Julius Searight ’13 with fellow food truckers 5. Karriem Kanston ’98, Deborah Pierce-Kanston ’98, Janet Ray ’01, ’05 MBA and Alyssa Frezza ’13 MBA 6. Champe Speidel ’01 and Robert Sisca ’03 7. Professor Peter Zacchilli and Clay Snyder ’93, ’15 Hon. 8. Alex Garcia, Michelle Meehan ’13, ’15 MBA, Lorise Lopez ’00 and Louis Lopez 9. Who’s behind those Foster Grants? 10. Laura Piantedosi ’83 and James Dougherty ’83. 11. Friends enjoying a laugh. 12. Heather Singleton ’93 and Sam Spadavecchia ’94.

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Spring 2015

OFF THE SHELF

Ink by University Authors BUGGIN’: A BROTHER’S TALE (Amazon Authorhouse)

DON TAYLOR, an assistant professor of sociology at the Charlotte Campus, has authored a novel that offers a uniquely male AfricanAmerican perspective on marriage, divorce, family and recovery. The “steamy and suspenseful” read focuses on a college professor who finds himself enmeshed in a triangle of narcissism, obsession and passion following the dissolution of his marriage.

ONLINE > amazon.com/Buggin-Brothers-

THE CONNECTICUT FARM TABLE COOKBOOK (The Countryman Press)

Food writer, stylist and recipe developer TRACEY MEDEIROS ’97, author of “The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook” and “Dishing Up Vermont” headed south to research her latest publication, “The Connecticut Farm Table Cookbook.” The collection includes 150 recipes from Connecticut chefs along with their purveyors: farmers, fishers, ranchers, foragers and cheesemakers. It showcases specialties these growers and chefs are creating using ingredients such as oysters, sunchokes, ramps, quail eggs and more.

Besides stunning photography, it offers intriguing profiles of food producers, chefs and restaurants ranging from seafood shacks to four-star farmhouse restaurants.

Tale-Don-Taylor/dp/149692732X

MAXIMUM FLAVOR SOCIAL (Maximum Flavor Inc.)

In ADRIANNE CALVO’S ’04 third cookbook, “Maximum Flavor Social,” food meets social media. Following the success of “Maximum Flavor” and “Driven by Flavor Fueled by Fire,” the publication features Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram comments from her fans alongside “greatest hit” recipes from her restaurant, Chef Adrianne’s Vineyard and Wine Bar, in Miami, Fla. The concept of Maximum Flavor is about maximixing flavors by using the freshest ingredients and making it personal —whether that means catching the fish yourself or presenting the dish in a creative way.

ONLINE > adriannecalvo.com

ONLINE > traceymedeiros.com

www.jwu.edu

29

ALUMNINEWS

Behind the Scenes in Orlando

Charlotte Alumni at Career Fair Alumni participated in the School of Business Internship & Career Fair at the JWU Charlotte Campus.

left to right :

Chris Plano ’93, Julie Bilodeau ’00, Glenn Wilga ’08, Seth Wyatt ’09, Kelsey Vogt ’13, Martin Lovelace ’07, Meghan Alford ’14, Keon Jackson ’12, James Grau ’13, Andrew Sasser ’14 and Sharon Clennon ’02

Fellow alumni gathered for a unique event at the exclusive Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Windermere, Fla. It featured a behind-the-scenes tour of the 89,000square-foot clubhouse, including a new $2 million dining complex. The event was hosted by General Manager Ryan Spence ’02.

left to right : Kenneth Luette ’91, Maira Morales ’01 and Steven Shipley ’85, ’06 M.A.T.

Connecticut Reunion Alumni met at The Capital Grille in Hartford, Conn., to reconnect and learn more about all of the exciting new programs at JWU. left to right :

Maria Cline ’94; Renee Williams ’12 and her daughter Christina Williams; Mechelle Tovar Olortegui ’98, ’01 MBA; Nichelle Appleby ’07 and Julian Murcia ’13

Atlanta Celebration Alumni in Atlanta, Ga., gathered for their annual regional event, which was held at Le Fais do-do, a venue near downtown Atlanta.

30

Spring 2015

Denver Pairings Denver alumni enjoyed the creative talents of Chef Johannes Busch during a seminar on creating perfect pairings with chocolate, sparkling wine and liqueurs.

Charlotte Educational Session Charlotte alumni continued their Professional Development Series with an educational session on “Proper Communication in the Workplace” featuring JWU Associate Professor Joan Geller.

left to right : Oanh Vu ’06, Andrea Lister ’06, Greg Lister, Alfred Rojas ’06, and Ximena Baena

Alumni and Student Networking

Rumson, N.J., Alumni Event

The Charlotte alumni chapter hosted an evening at the 7th Street Public Market. JWU Chef Peter Reinhart put on a culinary demonstration while graduating seniors and local alumni networked.

Alumni gathered at David Burke’s Fromagerie to make local connections and enjoy delicious tastings from the restaurant’s appetizer menu. Seasoned alumni professionals offered recent grads career advice while others swapped stories about campus life.

left to right : Shadel Hamilton ’01, Horasetta Suber ’01, Jackie Daniel ’01, Bonita Ross ’01 , Staceyann Sinclair ’01, Darryl Howard ’01

North Miami Homecoming Former athletes and classmates reunited at the 2015 Alumni Homecoming & Athletes Reunion Weekend on the North Miami Campus.

Alumni Leaders Week Each year North Miami Alumni Relations, in collaboration with deans and faculty, invite alumni back to campus for Alumni Leaders Week. Graduates are asked back into the classroom to inspire students by sharing stories of their experiences and highlighting successes within their industries.

www.jwu.edu

31

CLASSNOTES 1977 EDWARD GALGON PVD

NITCHELL TAPALU PVD

1

PROVIDENCE, R.I.

Nitchell is the owner of Cherish Event Solutions LLC in Cranston.

ALLENTOWN, PA.

Edward is the chef and manager at Tower Court in Topton.

1995

1979

THOMAS DYRNESS PVD

JOSEPH BOLTZER PVD

Thomas is the head chef at Mama Ricotta’s Restaurant in Charlotte.

FORT MILL, S.C.

BELVIDERE, N.J.

Joseph is a manufacturing sales representitive for LaPorte Associates LLC in Monroe Township.

JEFFREY GIRARD PVD WESTWOOD, MASS.

Jeffrey is the director of sales with Piper Products in Wausau, Wis.

1983 JOHN O’NEIL PVD LINCOLN, R.I.

John is the quality enhancement director for Atria Retirement Canada covering 29 retirement communities from New Brunswick to British Columbia.

KAREN RENFROE PVD

MICHELLE LERARIO PVD RED BANK, N.J.

[1] STEVE PHIPPS CHS SOUTHPORT, N.C.

Steve is the owner and executive chef of Mr. P’s Bistro.

1987 ELIZABETH LONGO PVD

MACUNGIE, PA.

GREEN BROOK, N.J.

Karen is an office manager with Allentown Pediatric Dental in Allentown.

Elizabeth is a general manager at Vista Travel in Colonia.

1984 PAUL FITE PVD PERKASIE, PA.

Paul is a regional vice president with Sodexo Inc. and Affiliates in Allentown.

1986 ROBERT LONGO PVD GREEN BROOK, N.J.

Robert is a sales trainer with Bob Longo Consulting.

1988 JAMES FAY PVD PAXTON, MASS.

Jim has left the food business and is now employed as a teacher and author. He has published eight books of poetry between 1993–2011 with another one tentantively slated to be published this summer. However, his primary focus is now on writing plays; he has written more than 30 and had two debut this spring. His plays have been performed at Wesleyan and Suffolk universities.

ALAN JACOBS PVD

PVD Providence NMI North Miami DEN Denver CLT Charlotte CHS Charleston NOR Norfolk VAIL Vail International ONL Online

32

Spring 2015

OCEAN, N.J.

Alan is the general manager of the City Club at River Ranch, Carriage House Hotel and RiverSpa in Lafayette, La. He also serves as president of the Pelican Chapter (Louisiana and Mississippi) for the Club Managers Association of

America and also serves on the Acadiana Chapter Board of the Louisiana Restaurant Association.

The Carriage House Hotel is the only AAA Four Diamond Hotel in Acadiana.

Michelle is the front office manager at Ocean Place Resort & Spa in Long Branch.

DAVID MCKLVEEN PVD WASHINGTON, D.C.

1992

Dave is now director of people and culture at Cava Grill based in Washington.

ROBIN MCCANN PVD

GERARD SIMONETTI NMI

HAMPTON, N.H.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Robin is an associate at Panera Bread in Portsmouth.

Gerard is the owner of Simonetti’s Pizzeria in Belmont.

1993

1996

VICTORIA KENYON PVD

WILLIAM BIGHAM CHS

ASHAWAY, R.I.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Victoria (Bertapelli) is currently the pastry sous chef and assistant banquet manager at Twin River Casino in Lincoln.

William is co-owner of The Improper Pig Restaurant.

1994

JONATHAN FORTES PVD

BRIAN MANSFIELD PVD

Jon and Amy Kumpf-Fortes are co-owners of The Flipside Café.

WARWICK, R.I.

Brian is east central regional chef with Chartwells Educational Dining Services.

SHERRY NISEN PVD OXFORD, N.J.

Sherry is a regional director with Stream.

1997 FORT MILL, S.C.

JAKE SMITH PVD YORK, MAINE

Jake is the executive chef at The Black Birch Restaurant in Kittery.

TRACY KELLER ’91

DREAMING BIG ENOUGH Tracy Keller ’91 is CEO of Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast, a northeastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia nonprofit dedicated to improving girls’ lives. And she found that it improved her own.

The Norfolk alumna received her associate degree in culinary arts and enjoyed working in the industry, a dream she held since she was 13. But six years into her career, she went through a divorce and changed her life’s direction. She started performing data entry part time at the Girl Scouts office, and attended com-

1998

ARETHA OLIVAREZ NOR

DOMENICO LOMBARDO

Aretha spoke at the Bishop T.D. Jakes 2015 International Pastors and Leadership Conference in Orlando this April. Her topic was the importance of the 501c3 in getting grants, donations and sponsorships.

PVD

BETHLEHEM, PA.

Domenico is the owner of The Mint Gastropub.

ANNETTE MILLER PVD PRESTO, PA.

Annette has accepted the position of senior sales manager at Sheraton Pittsburgh Hotel at Station Square.

MECHELLE TOVAR OLORTEGUI ’01 MBA PVD MANCHESTER, CONN.

Mechelle is the development officer at the University of Hartford.

munity college classes

1999

during her lunch breaks

JONATHAN ELIAS ’13 MBA

as she planned her next move.

Her boss was impressed by her focus and began increasing her job responsibilities.

She grew so fond of writing databases that she decided to pursue her bachelor’s degree in computer science. Over a seven-year period, the Girl Scouts promoted her five times, placing her in charge of departments such as finance and IT. After receiving her degree in 2004, she was tapped as interim CEO. Emboldened by the Girl Scouts’ belief in her abilities, she applied for and was granted the top spot.

Keller’s job involves communicating her organization’s mission and goals to the community, and encouraging them to share their expertise with girls — because there is more to the Girl Scouts than just cookie sales. Her efforts focus on programs that educate girls about financial literacy and the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields that most girls have never considered entering — even Keller herself at one time.

“I didn’t dream big enough,” Keller recalls. But she and her fellow Girl Scouts are now dreaming much bigger.

— Jennifer Brouillard

PVD

KANSAS CITY, MO.

Major Jonathan Elias graduated from the College of Culinary Arts and was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the Providence College ROTC program as an aviation officer. He attended flight school at Fort Rucker, Ala., and is qualified in the AH-64A/D Apache and the C-12 King Air Fixed Wing aircraft. He has deployed to Panama, Iraq (three tours), Kosovo and Afghanistan. He is also a graduate of the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He is currently stationed at Fort Leavenworth with his wife Lindsay and daughter Emma and is the institutional training product manager for the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center in Fort Leavenworth.

ORLANDO, FLA.

CHRISTOPHER HILL NOR VIRGINIA BEACH, VA.

Christopher is the head chef at Faire Seafood & Spirits in Goldsboro, N.C. ALLEN TACKETT PVD WASHINGTON, D.C.

Allen accepted a position as a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State.

2000 MAYANK MISRA MBA PVD DARIEN, CONN.

Mayank is director, North America Planning & Innovation, at Pfizer Oncology.

2002 ELPINIKI BRATSIS PVD EAST WALPOLE, MASS.

Elpiniki is the owner of Elpiniki Gifts.

ARA KARAKASHIAN MBA

PVD

MIDDLETOWN, N.J.

Ara is an assistant professor and the coordinator of hospitality management and culinary arts at the Institute of Culinary Arts in Jersey City.

JOSEPH KINDRED CHS DAVIDSON, N.C.

Joseph is the owner and head chef at Kindred.

KARI NAEGLER ’04 M.S.

PVD

DORCHESTER, MASS.

Kari is the executive chef at Wegmans in Newton.

ONLINE >gsccc.org

www.jwu.edu

33

CLASSNOTES AMY NOMEJKO PVD BELMONT, MASS.

Amy is co-owner of Sandrines Bistro, which serves contemporary and classic French cuisine in in Cambridge’s Harvard Square.

ANGELA THORNTON PVD GROTON, CONN.

Angela is the pastry chef and director at the Fusion Bakery and Patisserie in Middletown.

2004 SUSAN BARRY MBA PVD PROVIDENCE, R.I.

Susan is an entrepreneur with ACN Inc. SHEILA BORZOMATI NMI RIVERVIEW, FLA.

Sheila has earned a bachelor’s in legal studies and an MBA in internet marketing from Florida Institute of Technology. She is now studying for a Doctor of Business Administration. She is a marketing manager at Bisk Education in Tampa.

JOSHUA GORRA PVD PROVIDENCE, R.I.

Joshua is the managing sales director for Baystate Financial Services in East Providence.

AARON MESSINA PVD WEST WARWICK, R.I.

Aaron is now the vice president of sales and marketing for Russell Morin Catering and Events in Attleboro, Mass.

2005 LAURA BECKMAN PVD VINEYARD HAVEN, MASS.

Laura is the executive pastry chef at The Black Dog Tavern Company Inc.

DANIEL WILGA ’08 MBA

2007

2008

NORTH DIGHTON, MASS.

TRISTEN EPPS CLT

JACK BURTCH PVD

PVD

Dan oversees e-communications for the Institutional Advancement division of the Development, Alumni, Events and Prospect research teams at Brandeis University in Waltham.

2006 GREGORY BALCH CLT Gregory is the chef de cuisine at Cantina 1511.

Melissa was promoted to office manager at Hall Communications/ Cat Country 98.1 WCTK in Providence, R.I.

MATTHEW BREDES PVD

VICTORIA OROZCO CLT

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

EAST NORTHPORT, N.Y.

STERLING, CONN.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Matthew was promoted to assurance manager, not-for-profit and healthcare services, at BDO USA LLP.

Victoria is the beverage director of Amelie’s French Bakery & Café.

ZACHARY DEAN PVD

Jeremy was recently promoted to manager of quality assurance at Chipotle Mexican Grill headquarters.

NEW LONDON, CONN.

Zach is a commercial and industrial business development manager for American Integrity Restoration, a disaster recovery company. Zach’s role is to grow their business in Western Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and has been involved in the opening of their first office in Rhode Island.

LARKEN EGLESTON CLT CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Larken works for the Republic National Distributing Company as the Western North Carolina on-premise specialist for their Alliance Division.

RYAN FORTE CLT MATTHEWS, N.C.

Ryan is the executive chef for the Southminster Retirement Community in Charlotte.

SARA STANGER PVD Sara is sponsorships and partnerships manager at Alex and Ani in Cranston.

Spring 2015

Tristen finished third on this past season of ABC’s “The Taste.”

Tristen is currently working as a sous chef at Marcus Samuelson’s Red Rooster in Harlem, N.Y. MELISSA GADOURY PVD

BRISTOL, R.I.

34

CHESAPEAKE, VA.

JEREMY SCHNEIDER DEN DENVER, COLO.

JOYCE SIMONDS CLT VALENCIA, CALIF.

Joyce has joined the Los Angeles Dodgers as clubhouse chef. She previously worked for EXOS (formerly Athlete’s Performance) and ran the training table at Florida State University, where she oversaw all food production and front of house operations for athletic dining.

JESSICA VANN CLT VIRGINIA BEACH, VA.

Jessica accepted a job as sales coordinator with Coastal Hospitality Associates LLC. Her position covers two IHG Brand hotels at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.

MARY JAYNE (BURRIS) WILSON CLT GOLD HILL, N.C.

Mary Jayne is the director of operations of Amelie’s French Bakery & Cafe in Charlotte.

WALTHAM, MASS.

Jack is an associate at Market Metrics in Boston.

NICHOLAS COLLINS PVD PLEASANT VALLEY, CONN.

Nicholas is the banquet captain at the Hop Meadow Country Club in Simsbury.

JACQUELINE DEROSA PVD BOSTON, MASS.

Jacqueline is an account representative, inside sales, at Medtronic (formerly Covidien).

ALYSON FETHEROLF ’15 MBA DEN DENVER, COLO.

Alyson is now the sales manager for hotel services with PSAV Presentation Services, serving the Westin Denver Downtown.

MELISSA KOLBMANN PVD MANAHAWKIN, N.J.

Melissa is the senior contract center associate at AAA mid-Atlantic in Hamilton.

[2] KRISTIN PERAZZO CLT

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Kristin is the catering manager for Chicken Salad Chick.

2

ALUMNI OVERSEAS

MICHAEL GIOIA PVD

JEREMY BRINGARDNER ’01

COOKING FOR LYFE

2009

Jeremy Bringardner ’01 is no stranger to hard work. But

MARIA DANIELA HINDELANG DEN

years of his life cooking at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago

after spending three of the “hardest, most mentally grueling”

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA

post-graduation, he needed a change. “I was so burnt out; I

Maria Daniela and her brother have opened a business called Tacos & Bowls in her native Costa Rica. They sell healthy gourmet tacos and bowls at affordable prices and are about to open a second location.

needed a break,” the Providence Campus graduate says. “I couldn’t even imagine working in another restaurant.”

Shortly after he left Trotter’s, a regular customer from the

Amit is an assistant general manager at the World’s Tallest Holiday Inn Manhattan-Financial District, N.Y. Prior to this position he worked as a regional director of operations.

DAVID SOPER CLT

whose doctor had prescribed a radically different, healthy diet as part of her treat-

passion

for

healthy

food, the opportunity made sense and was a rewarding shift in gears that lead to a catering business, dabbling in food styling, a chance to compete (and win) on an

episode

of

“Chopped” and, ultimately, his current ven-

2009

for “Love Your Food Everyday”) Kitchen creates fast, flavorful

JASON ATKINS PVD

less. What began as one restaurant in Palo Alto, Calif., in 2011

KEVIN COUPER PVD CLARK, N.J.

Kevin is a financial planner at Sontag Advisory in New York.

VINCENT GIANCARLO CLT NEWPORT, N.C.

Vincent is the corporate executive chef for Cantina 1511 in Charlotte.

Evan is the principal at Lemoine LLC in Vernon.

HAROLD LOGAN CLT CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Harold is the owner of Carolina Chocolate Company.

WORCESTER, MASS.

David is the owner and master sommelier at The Wooden Vine Wine Bar & Bistro in Charlotte, N.C.

Jason is a business continuity analyst at Citizens Financial Group Inc. in Cranston.

VERNON ROCKVILLE, CONN.

LIANNE MARKERT PVD

DUNCAN, S.C.

JOHNSTON, R.I.

EVAN LEMOINE ’10 MBA PVD

come the private chef to a fifty-something woman with cancer

nutrition degree and

JERSEY CITY, N.J.

Michael is a business development executive at Peace Of Mind Technology.

restaurant approached him with a unique opportunity: be-

ment. With his culinary

AMIT RANGI MBA PVD

CHESTER, N.Y.

Lianne is a catering coordinator with Forrester Research in Cambridge.

THOMAS MARLOW CLT INDIAN LAND, S.C.

Thomas is the executive chef at Mimosa Grill, part of Harper’s Restaurant Group in Charlotte, N.C.

[3] NIKKI MOORE CLT CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Nikki is the owner of Food Love, a personal chef service.

3

ture as executive chef at LYFE Kitchen.

LYFE (an acronym and healthy food, serving menu items that are 600 calories or has blossomed into 16 restaurants around the country. Bringardner has been there from the beginning, spending the first year talking to customers, assessing the menu and figuring out what the restaurant could improve. “We learned a lot that first year about who we want to be, and what our next steps were.”

Next steps include expanding even further and hopefully going public within the next two years. Bringardner is looking forward to what’s yet to come: “Every day presents a new chal-

LAURA MYERS CLT FORT WAYNE, IND.

Laura is now the bakery manager at Earth Fare.

lenge, but every new challenge presents an opportunity for us to be better.” — Rachel Donilon

ONLINE >lyfekitchen.com

www.jwu.edu

35

CLASSNOTES JOHN O’CONNELL ’12 MAT

RYAN BURKART PVD

PVD

CHELSEA, MASS.

CATASAUQUA, PA.

Ryan, general manager of the Holiday Inn Boston-Bunker Hill, accepted the Stevan Porter Emerging Hospitality Leader of the Year Award from the Massachusetts Lodging Association in April.

John is a culinary arts instructor at Lehigh Career & Technical Institute in Schnecksville.

EDWARD SCARPONE PVD WASHINGTON, D.C.

Ed is the executive sous chef at DBGB Kitchen and Bar in City Center.

ANNA STARK PVD MANCHESTER, CONN.

Anna is the food and beverage manager at the Sheraton Hotel in Windsor Locks.

CIDNEY WILCOX CLT LITHONIA, GA.

Cidney is the head chef at Vino Venue in Atlanta.

2010 TAYLOR ANTHONY PVD AURORA, COLO.

Taylor is the new assistant show manager at the Colorado Garden Foundation.

SHERI BELLOWS PVD WARWICK, R.I.

Sheri is a customer experience specialist with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, in Providence.

TRAVIS BOSSHARDT CLT ORLANDO, FLA.

Travis is working for Darden Restaurants as a manager at Bahama Breeze.

ELIZABETH BUZZERIO PVD NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I.

Elizabeth is a pastry chef at Modern Bakery in Boston, Mass.

5

CLT

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Ashleigh is a personal chef and owner of Chef Ashley Easterling Cooks.

Bruce is the executive chef at Draught.

Adam is the chef de cuisine at Manna Restaurant and participated in the design phase of the first hospital-based full-service restaurant in the country. Manna is located inside Castle Rock Adventist Hospital and features an open dining room, waitstaff, and a rotating seasonal menu that includes produce and herbs from its on-site half-acre garden. The team who brought Manna to Adventist was recognized by the Association for Healthcare Foodservice as the winner of its 2014 Spotlight Award.

[4] ERIN GASBARRO CLT SECANE, PA.

Erin has been promoted by the LPGA Tour as a tournament manager for the 2017 Solheim Cup (a competition between team USA and team Europe) in Des Moines, Iowa.

4

TODD LANDREE CLT WARREN, PA.

Todd was a contestant on this past season of “King of the Nerds 3” on TBS. ASHLEY LUNDH MBA PVD CRANSTON, R.I.

Ashley is an events coordinator at Brown University in Providence.

MEAGAN O’FLAHERTY PVD FREEHOLD, N.J.

Meagan is the district fundraising event coordinator for the Muscular Dystrophy Association in Maywood.

JOSHUA SEGUIN PVD NEW YORK, N.Y.

Joshua is general manager at the Mercer Kitchen.

CAITLIN SHEEHAN PVD BOSTON, MASS. Caitlin has graduated with her master’s in dietetics from Eastern Illinois University. She is now a registered dietitian and a certified nutrition education specialist.

PETER SPADARO PVD STONY POINT, N.Y.

Peter is executive chef at Sage Dining Services Inc. in Hartsdale.

[5] JOSHUA TROVATO CLT LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

Josh was a contestant on Season 14 of “Hell’s Kitchen” with Chef Gordon Ramsay.

36

Spring 2015

Danyelle is the owner of Kids Country Family Home Daycare.

ASHLEIGH EASTERLING

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

CENTENNIAL, COLO.

BLAKELY, GA.

2011

BRUCE FLORIO CLT

ADAM FREISEM DEN

DANYELLE VANEIKEN PVD

BENJAMIN FRYE CLT CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Benjamin is the co-owner of Your Mom’s Donuts in Matthews.

NICOLE GERANCHER PVD CATASAUQUA, PA.

Nicole is the executive chef at Blue Monkey Sports Restaurant.

TYLER HUNT DEN DENVER, COLO.

Tyler recently celebrated his four-year anniversary with both of his employers: the Colorado Convention Center, where he works full-time as an event manager, and Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, where he is a part-time field operative.

MICHAEL IAMELLO PVD OCEAN, N.J.

Michael is the guest service representative at Ocean Place Resort & Spa in Long Branch.

LUOXI LI MBA MBA PVD SMITHFIELD, R.I.

Luoxi is a staff accountant with Roger H. Crouteau CPA in Uxbridge, Mass.

KATELYN SPURR PVD BROOKLINE, MASS.

Katelyn was promoted from event coordinator to events associate at Forrester Research.

IN MEMORIAM SHERWIN ZAIDMAN ’59 Feb. 24, 2015

JOSEPH A. RODRIGUES ’88 March 14, 2015

AMANDA HILLARY FOURNIER ’01 March 30, 2015

CHARLES N. WRIGHT ’68 April 25, 2014

ROBERT G. MAJOR ’91 March 14, 2015

ROBERT J. PETSCH ’03 Jan. 29, 2015

DAVID V. LAWRENCE ’74 Aug. 22, 2014

SCOTT PULVERMACHER ’92 March 31, 2015

MICHAEL P. GARBER ’10 March 1, 2015

HUGH T. MULHOLLAND ’79 Jan. 23, 2015

JAIME J. DUCLOS ’97 Aug. 1, 2014

FACULTY, STAFF AND FRIENDS

ANDREW T. KELLER ’82 Feb. 5, 2015

KEVIN C. CARPENTER ’99 Jan. 29, 2015

RALPH WIELAND ’84 March 23, 2015

JODY V. HARRISON ’99 March 28, 2015

PETER KOCH Feb. 15, 2015 RICHARD J. CARBOTTI Jan. 21, 2014

JORDAN HITT DEN

6

LAS VEGAS, NEV.

Jordan is the new channel distribution specialist at MGM Resorts.

[6] CAROLYN MALONE CLT SMYRNA, GA.

Carolyn is a store manager for the Great Harvest Bread Company in Alpharetta.

ALEXANDRA MILLER PVD OCEANSIDE, N.Y.

Alexandra is the manager at Cafe Centro New York City.

DESIREE NAROG ONL BRISTOL, CONN.

Desiree is the brand ambassador at Onyx Moonshine in East Hartford.

LAUREN ORTIZ PVD COPIAGUE, N.Y.

Lauren is manager at Patina Restaurant Group.

ZACHARY RANES PVD

2012

ALENA DIAZ CLT

JAMIE BLEA CLT

Alena is the general manager of Amelie’s French Bakery & Cafe in Rock Hill.

MORRISTOWN, N.J.

Jamie is a human resources manager with the Wyndham Hotel Group in Parsippany.

FORT MILL, S.C.

TRAVIS GARRETT CLT CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Travis is executive chef at The Mandrake Small Plates + Wine Bar.

company a few years back at The Boat House in Tiverton, R.I., as a line cook before heading to Boston, where he earned the title junior sous chef at Deuxave, ranked one of the top restaurants in the city.

TEESIA RENEE WILLIAMS

PVD

WINDSOR, CONN.

Renee hosts the television program “Simply Fresh Food with Chef Renee” in Windsor.

ROSA ZEFFERINO PVD COLTS NECK, N.J.

Rosa is a real estate agent and property manager at Exit Realty East Coast in Holmdel.

2013 EMILY CILIBERTO PVD MANCHESTER, CONN.

Emily is the community manager for Relay For Life in Rocky Hill.

CHERRY HILL, N.J.

MATTHEW DELGADO PVD

Zachary is an account manager for Media Place/In-Store Sports Network in Long Island City, N.Y.

ASTORIA, N.Y.

Matthew is a bartender at State Bar & Grill New York City.

CHRISTOPHER VIAUD PVD

JONATHAN ERNST CLT

ALLSTON, MASS.

Christopher recently became sous chef at the newly remodeled and transformed Papa Razzi Metro in Burlington. Chris worked for the

FORT MILL, S.C.

Jon is head chef at Cafe Monte in Charlotte, N.C.

www.jwu.edu

37

CLASSNOTES OLIVIA ROMA PVD

7

FOXBORO, MASS.

Olivia is meeting manager at PSMJ Resources Inc. in Newton, which provides management consulting services for the architecture, engineering and construction industries.

9

BRANDON STARK CLT CAROLINA BEACH, N.C.

Brandon is the executive chef at Michael’s Seafood Restaurant.

CHELSEA WEINBERG ’15 MBA DEN

[7] CHELSI GALLAGHER CLT CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Chelsi is a sales representative with Liberty Mutual Insurance in South Charlotte.

SHAELYN GERMAIN MBA

PVD

ATTLEBORO, MASS.

Shaelyn is a programs director at Wimpy Kid, Inc./111 South Street, a multipurpose community building owned by author Jeff Kinney, in Plainville.

GLADE PARK, COLO.

Chelsea is the assistant manager for room service operations at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

[8] ASHLEY WYRICK CLT CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Ashley is the owner of Owen’s Bagels & Deli.

2014 JAIME CAFFIN PVD ATTLEBORO, MASS.

ASHLEY GARCEAU PVD

MATTHEW ROSS PVD

PRINCETON, MASS.

MARSHFIELD, MASS.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Jaime is a staff accountant at Mullen Scorpio Cerilli in Providence, R.I.

Matthew is a tax accountant at Grey, Grey & Grey LLP in Canton.

Stacey is a sales and markerting manager with Libretto’s Pizzeria.

ERIN CONLON PVD

Ashley is the conference coordinator for Questex Media LLC, working in the nightclub and bar division.

MICHELLE MEEHAN CLT MBA ’15 PVD

Erin is a reservations agent at the Molly Pitcher Inn in Red Bank.

STACEY HAGYARD PVD

WESTPORT, CT.

Michelle has been promoted to convention services manager at the Hilton Stamford Hotel & Executive Meeting Center in Stamford.

THOMAS POST PVD LAKE COMO, N.J.

Thomas is the lead sommelier at David Burke Fromagerie in Rumson.

MANASQUAN, N.J.

KYLE DEVLIN PVD FARMINGDALE, N.J.

Kyle works for Range by Bryan Voltaggio in Washington, D.C.

8

ALAN GRANT CLT WAXHAW, N.C.

Alan is the guest relations manager at The Ballantyne Resort in Charlotte.

NATE KEENEY PVD NORTHAMPTON, PA.

Nate is the associate manager of special events and youth engagement for the American Diabetes Association. Nate manages online engagement and marketing as well as oversees initiatives directed at impacting children with diabetes, including the local diabetes camp.

[9] ANDREW LUNDQUIST

CLT

FORT WAYNE, IND.

Andrew is a sommelier at The Wooden Vine Wine Bar & Bistro in Charlotte, N.C.

38

Spring 2015

SUBMISSIONS If there’s news in your life you’d like to share with fellow alumni, please send us photos and announcements about recent weddings, unions and additions to your family.

Images: To submit images

from your event, please provide high resolution digital files ( jpeg format, 1 MB minimum) or actual photographs.

Entries may be emailed to jwumagazine@jwu.edu or to: JWU Magazine c/o Johnson & Wales University, 8 Abbott Park Place, Providence, RI 02903.

MARRIAGE AND UNIONS 10

DANA (GOLDSTEIN) SHEFSKY ’96

SUSAN CHIN-ARRENEGA ’99 MBA PVD and Luis Arrenega November 9, 2013

THE INNOVATOR Dana (Goldstein) Shefsky ’96 went from an internship

1993

cleaning hotel rooms to revolutionizing the hospitality industry by creating the first app that allows guests to choose their

SHANNON M. NYLANDER CHS and Melissa Boulineau April 24, 2015

room from a map of the hotel, request upgrades, order amenities and check in and out using their Smartphone.

As director of Digital Product Innovation at Hilton, Shefsky’s

1998

conception of a digital map illustrating each one of Hiltons 4,000

hotels

was

1993

a

[10] MATTHEW CATTANI PVD and Liliya Akhmatova December 28, 2014

game-changer. Just as passengers can choose airline seats from a seating map, hotel guests could could now select a

BIRTH AND ADOPTIONS

room closest to the pool or the elevator or one with a special view.

The tech innovation

1993

expands later this year,

[11] SHANNON M. NYLANDER

when an app will enable

CHS and Melissa Boulineau Peyton Riley

guests at four of the Hilton brands to use their Smartphone as their

2007

room key. With this addition guests can manage their whole stay experience at their fingertips. They can pre-order a snack to be ready in their room and bypass the front desk upon arrival by using their Smartphone. “Everybody is looking to bring this technology to market,” says Shefsky. “We’re confident that our solution will exceed others and we will be the first to do it at scale.”

The hospitality management major first encountered the Internet as a freshman work-study student assigned to the dean of students’ office on the Providence Campus in 1992: “I remember calling my mom to say my job was very challenging and I didn’t think I could do it. But I spent the next four years working for all these deans and it was a great experience. That office was my first exposure to technology; if I had given up, my career would have progressed in a different way.”

— Denise Dowling

ONLINE > Hiltonworldwide.com

11

SEAN FLYNN PVD and Katie (Shoe) ’07 Abigail, Brielle and Caroline CHELSEY HELGELAND WALSH DEN and Kemar Marley Rae Walsh

[12] MATTHEW

HOCHERMAN NMI and Tova Jake Alexander and Abigail Maxine

2008

12

KRISTA CLARK DEN and Chris Alexis Lynn

2010 PASCHA BELNAVIS CLT Raegan Skylar

www.jwu.edu

39

CAREER UPDATE The Supper Club

“M

USIC HAS ALWAYS been a passion of mine,” says Three Three Five’s chef-owner Chris Mangless ’05, who opened his 12,000-square-foot “dining studio” in Green Bay, Wis., in 2011. So it made sense to bring food and music together once he custom-built the multipurpose two-story space, which easily morphs from tasting room to salon, restaurant to concert hall — and back again.

Dinner-concerts at Three Three Five have become hot tickets, featuring acts diverse as Grammy® winner Norah Jones, the Lumineers’ Stelth Ulvang, Seattle folkies The Head & The Heart and alt-country songstress Brandi Carlile.

Concerts work like this: “We serve dinner at every show, and we always feed the band,” says Mangless. “Ticket sales go to the artist, and the money from dinner goes to us. At first it was a hard sell but now [bands] just trust in what we’re doing.”

The first concert was an acoustic set by Nashville singer-songwriter Cory Chisel. “We totally packed the place. It was one of the favorite shows he’d ever played.” Since then, finding bands to play has been “100 percent word-of-mouth — it’s crazy how small the music world is, just like the chef world!”

Opening a business in his hometown wasn’t part of Mangless’ original plan. After graduating from JWU’s Denver Campus, he figured he’d stay in Green Bay just long enough to save up some money. When his catering and event business, The Traveling Chef, started gaining momentum, Mangless began to think seriously about finding a working studio able to accommodate private dinners and receptions.

After a year and a half of looking at duds — “there’s not a lot of original architecture left” — he stumbled across the 335 Broadway building in what real-estate developers colloquially call an “up-and-coming” neighborhood.

The price was right, and the frugal Mangless remodeled the century-old building himself, with help from friends and family. “The first floor had been a grocery store. The space had the original wood floors, the original tin ceiling, exposed brick — stuff you can’t easily replicate.”

Mangless installed an open kitchen to keep the space airy, but also to make the cooking, plating and serving part of the show. “When we’re open for a concert, the seat right by the kitchen is one of the most coveted,” he notes. “Of course a bad night in the kitchen is as much of a show as a good night!”

Although Mangless spends much of his time traveling to catering gigs, he tries to reserve Wednesday nights at Three Three Five for what he calls “Open Market Dinners,” which are open to the public and showcase farmfresh produce, cheeses, fish and meats. (He estimates that roughly 80–90 percent of any given menu is local — often improvised from his daily visits with farmer-suppliers.)

As a chef, Mangless favors shareable small plates, thereby maximizing guests’ ability to “try lots of different flavors and textures.” Diners are seated family-style, to more easily share in the endless platters of oysters, cheese and charcuterie, as well as vegan/gluten-free options like carrot-ginger soup with roasted coconut chips.

In addition to running Three Three Five and catering events as The Traveling Chef, Mangless makes and sells JacB, his own line of caramels.

He also experiments with winemaking and collects wines for Three Three Five’s extensive cellar of more than 3,000 bottles.

What’s next? Widow Jones, a craft cocktail bar. “It’s a collaboration with artisanal bitters company Bittercube,” he says. “It will be ‘over the river’ in downtown Green Bay.” He hopes to open this fall.

— Andrea Feldman

40

Spring 2015

ONLINE >threethreefive.com

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