UHart H Magazine Summer 2021 by University of Hartford

U N I V E R S I T Y

O F

H AR T F OR D

M AGAZINE

SU M M ER

2 02 1

2021 S UM M ER UNI V E RS I T Y

O F

H ART F O RD

M AGA ZI N E

100

facebook.com/ UniversityofHartford

University of Hartford Magazine is published periodically for alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends.

Vice President for Marketing and Enrollment M O L LY P O L K Editor J O N AT H A N E A S T E R B R O O K ’ 87, M ’ 9 0 Design KRISTINA K ARLSON ’ 14 KEVIN SEPE ’99 L I L LY P E R E I R A ’ 02 aldeia.design Art Direction PAU L A R I B E I R O Contributors S A R A H B O I S S O N N E AU LT M A RY D I L E O ’ 8 4 M E AG A N FA Z I O M ’ 1 6 ASHLEY FEDIGAN ’06, M’08 STEPHANIE FENGLER KELLEY FREUND K AT Y H E N C H Y ’ 1 8 , M ’ 2 0 K AREN HUNTER M A RY I N G A R R A P ’ 2 0 , P ’ 2 2 B R AY D E N R A N S O M ’ 2 0 JOEL SAMBERG Photography N I CO L E B E DA R D M A RY S C H U LT Z B R E TO N A N TO N I O C . E S P O S I TO J U -YO N G H A JA K E KOT E E N DA N I E L L A B E L L E S T E V E M C L AU G H L I N J O N AT H A N O L S O N M I C H E L E T R OY U N I V E R S I T Y O F H A R T FO R D ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL CO L L E C T I O N S

HAR TFO R D. E D U twitter.com/ UofHartford

instagram.com/ UniversityofHartford

youtube.com/ UofHartfordNews

H, UNIVERSIT Y OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE Office of Marketing and Communication, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06117 editor@hartford.edu O N T H E C OV E R : 100 faces of The Hartt School

HARTT CELEBRATES 100 Ninety-nine faces on the cover, and Julius Hartt makes 100—just some of the accomplished alumni, influential faculty, and outstanding members of The Hartt School community. Who can you identify?

1 Lauren Bernofsky ’90, 2 Richard Provost ’60, 3 Gala Flagello ’16, 4 Watson Morrison, 5 Robert Black ’79, 6 Chelsea Knox HCD 2003–06, 7 Edward Diemente ’48, 8 Brandee Younger ’06, 9 Larry Alan Smith, 10 Khris Henry ’19, 11 Joseph Beltre, 12 Johnathan Lee Iverson ’98, 13 Matthew Brooks ’03, 14 David Macbride ’73, 15 Elizabeth (Libby) Warner Paranov ’43, 16 Hilda Morales, 17 Luiz de Moura-Castro, 18 Benjamin Toth, 19 Peter Boyer M’93, D’95, 20 Christine Dwyer ’07, 21 Kasey Calebaugh ’21, 22 Robert Davis, 23 Marin Ireland ’00, 24 Kayla Herrmann ’13, 25 Keir Odonnell ’00, 26 Ryan Speedo Green ’08, 27 Joan Leopold Glazier ’58, P’86, 28 Samuel Berkman, 29 Victoria Jaenson, 30 Martha-Summa-Chadwick ’83, 31 Philip Boykin ’95, 32 Harold Bauer, 33 Shuying Li ’13, 34 Jimmy Greene ’97, 35 Peggy Lyman Hayes ’06, Hon. ’11, 36 Steve Metcalf ’70, 37 Edward Bolkovac, 38 Orin Wolf ’01, 39 Michael Yaffe, 40 Steve Davis ’89 (John Abbott Photography), 41 Christopher William Hernandez ’19, 42 Sandy Hughes ’08, 43 Stephen Pier, 44 Scott Bradlee ’05, 45 Stephen Gryc, 46 Dylann Vallier ’16 (photo: Michael E McMath), 47 Lisa Borres ’11, 48 Walter Gibson (photo: Steven Laschever), 49 Angelica Ansbacher ’19, 50 Moshe Paranov, 51 Gabrielle Collins HCD 2009-14, 52 Nat Reeves, 53 Malcom Morrison, 54 Michael Spaziani ’12, 55 Edward Cumming, 56 Raymond Hanson, 57 Javier Colon ’00, 58 Dee Hansen, 59 Riza Takahashi ’14, 60 John Clancy ’96, 61 Brian Johnston ’16, 62 Eran Bugge ’05, 63 Pauline Hartt (Dottie) Paranov, 64 Louis Pelletieri, 65 Keisha Giles ’12, 66 Kenneth Boucher ’90, 67 Dionne Warwick H’86, 68 Jackie McLean H’97, 69 Shane Shanahan ’08, 70 Shenel Johns, 71 Shawn-Caulin Young ’04, 72 Schuyler Jackson ’13, 73 Douglas Lyons ’09, 74 John Feierabend, 75 Teri Einfeldt, 76 Alfred C. Fuller H’52, 77 Wu Han ’83, 78 Kevin Duda ’02, 79 Wayne Escoffery ’97, 80 Enid Lynn, 81 Mihai Tetel, 82 Primrose Fuller, 83 Michael Larco HCD 1993–95, 84 Elmer Nagy, 85 Kalena Bovell M’14, GPD’15, 86 Glen Adsit, 87 Imanuel Willheim, 88 Linda Solow Blotner, 89 Roger Murtha, 90 Isis Schwellenbach ’23, 91 Amy Manfredi ’98, M’07, 92 Ed Alton Year ’81, 93 Ta’Nika Gibson HCD 2017, 94 Mike Casey ’15, 95 Patrick Miller, 96 Jonathan Barber ’11, 97 Lauren Curley ’14, 98 Robert Brubaker ’77, 99 Irene Kahn

CONTENTS / VOL. 03 / ISSUE 01

F E ATU R E S

A Hartt-Felt Reflection Celebrating 100 years of The Hartt School

A Perfect Match

Frank and Nancy Hursey’s commitment to UHart

A Profile in Courage Nelba Márquez-Greene ’97 finds strength in many ways

Frank and Nancy Hursey bring together their lifelong passions in support of UHart’s newest academic building.

P. 23

Synthesis

Miles Aron ’13 blends his scholarly and musical passions Celebrating our outstanding alumni

P. 54

Magical March for Hartford Men’s Basketball

P. 36

39 40

DE PA R TM E N TS 0 2 O B S E R VAT I O N S Message from President Woodward

3 6 H AW K N AT I O N Inside athletics

0 4 YO U R V I E WS Readers speak out

40 MIXED MEDIA Books, movies, and music

05 UNOTES News from campus

41 WORDS OF WISDOM Expert advice

1 2 H AW K ’ S E Y E V I E W The big picture

42 ALUMNI NOTES News for and about alumni

14 FIRST CLASS Spotlight on faculty

56 LOOKING BACK From the archives

0 2 / O B S E R VAT I O N S / M E S S AG E

FROM

THE

PRESIDENT

Adapting to a Changing World Gregory S. Woodward

Dear Friends, We recently celebrated the graduation of students from the classes of 2020 and 2021—in five ceremonies over two days at the XL Center in Hartford. We recognize these graduates who persevered through a period unlike any other in our collective memories. These resilient and creative students epitomize an inner spirit running through this generation that helps push them to finish what they start, to find success in the face of tough odds, and to turn their dreams into realities through hard work, patience, tenaciousness, and a willingness to adapt to a rapidly changing world. Francis X. and Nancy Hursey, from an earlier generation or two of UHart alumni, have shown the same determined spirit in their own amazing story of professional achievement and personal resiliency. Through incredible ingenuity and daily hard work in engineering and health care, the Hurseys have literally saved the lives of thousands of people and will better the lives of thousands of future UHart students through their inventions, care, and generosity. At our soon-to-open Hursey

engaged in conversations at the Board Center on campus, the future of health and campus level about the best ways care, engineering, and technology will to provide an exceptional academic unfold before our very eyes, day by day and campus experience for all students, and generation by generation. of which our intercollegiate athletics One hundred years is a long time. Yet, program is an integral part. The Board The Hartt School has been at the top of its game for that long a stretch; changing participated in a process that aligns with their responsibilities as fiduciaries with the times, embodying excellence in and visionaries on behalf of all students, a hyper-competitive world, and creating faculty, and staff. This ongoing process a century-long span of empathy and took into consideration some of the stark emotion, expression and energy. A list fiscal and enrollment realities that exist of stars, educators, artists, and award across all of higher education today winners would take up the rest of this and those associated with our budget magazine! Thank you as you raise our and offerings. spirits, express our anguish and joy, and The NCAA Division III philosophy make our daily lives so much richer by states that colleges and universities what you work so hard to do. Here’s to “place the highest priority on the overall another 100! quality of the educational experience Resiliency, patience, hard work, never and on the successful completion of giving up, realizing your dreams, adaptall students’ academic programs.” The ing as needed, and seizing the moment; Board embraces this model and encourour graduating students, Frank and ages the campus to seek and build Nancy Hursey, and The Hartt School bridges that span the academic and have done it all. sport opportunities that are hallmarks Showing those same traits this past of higher education. The Board and I are March, our men’s basketball team grateful for all that our student-athletes earned its first-ever America East chamand athletics staff contribute to the pionship and NCAA Tournament berth. University community. Congratulations to the Hawks’ players As we move forward, regents and and coaches on a truly special season. University leadership are committed Staying on the athletics front, our Board of Regents voted on May 6 to begin to building a future structure for the University that equitably and susthe multi-year process of transitioning tainably supports our students’ transthe University’s intercollegiate athletics formative academic, extracurricular, programs from Division I to Division residential, athletic, and recreational III. This decision was understandably educational experiences. Together, these confusing for some in the UHart comsignature experiences help sustain munity coming within two months of and create the very bright future of the the excitement surrounding our men’s University of Hartford. H basketball team. This decision was not made lightly. Over the past year, the University has

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

Congratulations, Graduates

Classes of 2020 and 2021

1 81 SSUPMRMI N EG R 202

04 / YOUR VIEWS / LETTERS

We Want to Hear from You! H welcomes comments and thoughts from readers and alumni, and while we can’t print or personally respond to each letter or email, we promise that we do read and appreciate them. Comments published on this page express the views of the writers and not the University of Hartford or staff of H. Letters and emails are edited for clarity, space, and UHart style. MAIL : H Editor, Office of Marketing and Communication,

200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06117

EMAIL: editor@hartford.edu

What a pleasant surprise it was to see the Summer 2020 issue, on page 65, mention “The Boss Was Here.” Was he ever! Thanks for choosing this. That year, I was privileged to run the Concert Committee on the Program Council. Although the Concert Committee produced the concert, we had to coordinate it with the Spring Weekend Committee. I still remember sitting at the entrance to the cafeteria by the dorms playing his record over and over again on a portable record player, trying to drum up some interest. Quite frankly, there wasn’t much. Bruce was the opening of the three acts, followed by The Chambers Brothers and the headliner, Mountain. Bruce blew them away! Nothing could live up to, let alone surpass, his performance. The

Chambers Brothers served as a pleasant diversion before the stumbling, bombastic attempted showmanship by Lesley West of Mountain. It’s hard to believe that concert was close to 50 years ago. Bruce wrote and still writes the best lyrics (if you haven’t seen it, watch the 2019 movie Blinded by the Light), is probably the most erudite of the rockers, and is still relevant today. —Larry Stern ’75 (Barney) I saw the box on page 56 of your summer issue about the fact that Bruce Springsteen had performed at the University on April 27, 1974. I remember coming out of the dining hall. A young man pulled up in his car and rolled down his window. He asked me where the gym was—I gave him directions. I thought he must be a student from one of the nearby schools coming to attend the concert that I knew was to happen in the gym later that day. I did not recognize his face, so I figured he was not a University of Hartford student. My friends and I went to that concert. The fellow who had asked for directions was there all right. On the stage. First on the bill. None of us had any idea who he was. I did not learn his name until sometime after the concert was over. I was so impressed with him that I cannot remember who else was on the bill. —Alanna Mozzer ’74 (ENHP)

<< Thanks to Larry Stern for sharing this poster showcasing that night in 1974.

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

GOLD!

We are pleased to share that the summer 2020 issue of H was recognized for excellence by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, winning gold distinction in the District I awards competition.

F OR T HE R ECOR D

Bill Dougal ’73 was named an Arts Hero by the Connecticut Office of the Arts in May 2019. His name was incorrect and the year of his honor unclear in the class note that appeared on p. 43 of the summer 2020 issue.

ENGAGING

The Princeton Review has included the Barney School of Business in its 2021 listing of Best Business Schools. In April, Stephen M. Mulready M’77 (right) was named Barney School dean, becoming the first alumnus to hold the position.

CLASSROOMS

IN-DEMAND

PROGRAMS

TE COU MNMOU NSI T/ YN EPWASR FTRNO EM RCSAHMIPPU S/

UNOTES

/ 05

06 / UNOTES / NEWS

FROM

CAMPUS

Alex Kobos ’21 adjusts the angle of attack of the airfoil in preparation for a “lift and drag on an airfoil” experiment on one of UHart’s wind tunnels as classmates observe.

U HA RT L AUNCH ES

New Program in Aerospace Engineering The University of Hartford will launch a new undergraduate program in aerospace engineering this fall to meet the demand for professionals in this growing sector. This will be the only program of its kind in Connecticut, which is known as the “Aerospace Alley’’ as both a pioneer and a global leader in aerospace and defense. Additionally, Connecticut’s aerospace and defense worker productivity is ranked third in the country. This offers students a unique advantage to explore a career path within the same state they are studying in, making it highly likely that they will take advantage of various internship and job opportunities near campus.

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

The new program aligns with the mission of the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA) to prepare students for the jobs of the future. As the field of engineering evolves year after year, the types of jobs students need to be prepared for will also evolve. To stay ahead of this curve, CETA continues to offer adaptive coursework, the most upto-date technology and software for hands-on learning, and new partnerships with local industry to help students build rewarding connections with professionals. The new program is launching at a time when the field of aerospace engineering is growing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects this industry to see 3 percent job growth nationally and 7.3 percent job growth locally in Connecticut over a 10-year period ending in 2029. Students will be able to explore rewarding careers as practicing engineers in a wide range of aerospace engineering fields. Professionals in this field earn an average median salary of $116,500. Graduates of this program will learn about different types of aerospace products, including commercial and military airplanes and helicopters; remotely piloted aircraft and rotorcraft; spacecraft, including launch vehicles and satellites; and military missiles and rockets. “Our students could not be at more of an advantage than to be studying aerospace engineering in Connecticut because we are surrounded by major companies and partners leading the industry,” says Professor of Mechanical Engineering Cy Yavuzturk, program director. “Our students and faculty will get to collaborate with professionals from these organizations to solve problems, suggest new solutions, and provide fresh perspectives.”

UNOTES / NEWS

The transition into creating a new program dedicated to aerospace engineering was seamless for CETA and UHart, as students in related majors have completed research associated with aerospace. In 2019, CETA developed an impactful scholarship program with Pratt & Whitney to foster diversity and inclusion in the field of engineering. As part of the program, recipients have the opportunity to network with Pratt & Whitney executives and potential hiring managers, and are encouraged to apply for internships and full-time employment opportunities with the company. As a perfect example of the type of projects students can become involved in, a 2017 team of University of Hartford and University of Bridgeport students released an eight-foot tall, helium-filled weather balloon as a practice run for a later launch, enabling millions of people to see a once-in-a lifetime solar eclipse across the United States. Two UHart students and three professors were part of the team that worked with the NASA Connecticut Space Grant Consortium.

FROM

CAMPUS

/ 07

Meeting Demand ENHP offerings expand to include occupational therapy The College of Education, Nursing and Health Professions (ENHP) will begin offering a combined five-year bachelor’s— master’s degree occupational therapy program this fall. A post-baccalaureate master’s degree in occupational therapy (MSOT) is planned to begin in summer 2022. The addition of occupational therapy is part of an expansion in ENHP to prepare health professionals for in-demand careers. Jobs for occupational therapists are expected to grow 24 percent during the 10-year period ending in 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Occupational therapy is a natural complement to our established programs in physical therapy, prosthetics/orthotics, and related health professions, and will allow us to grow our enrollment while meeting the need for more therapists,” ENHP Dean Cesarina Thompson says. In addition to occupational therapy, the College of ENHP has launched new programs in exercise science and a pre-licensure Bachelor of Science in Nursing in recent years. All of these growing programs will be housed in the new state-of-the-art Hursey Center (see page 23). Occupational therapists (OTs) work with people of all ages, helping them overcome health challenges to live active, independent

lives. They may assist young children who have physical or mental disabilities, individuals who have sustained a brain injury, or older adults recovering from a stroke. OTs work in a variety of settings including schools, homes, outpatient clinics, mental health facilities, and hospitals. Students in the combined program will earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree in only five years, helping them start their careers sooner. In the undergraduate phase, students earn a bachelor’s degree in health sciences and begin the professional OT program in the fourth year. “Occupational therapy is a very rewarding career with strong demand and high salaries,” says Sarah Psillas, assistant professor and director of the occupational therapy program. “Getting to see your patients make progress and celebrate their victories is extremely gratifying.” The undergraduate, pre-professional phase of the program will begin this fall. The professional program was recently reviewed for candidacy status by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education with a decision expected in August.

REAL TALK Rogow Lecture Discusses Racial Disparities in Health Care and COVID-19

David Valencia ’20 (left) and Associate Professor Paul Slaboch look at the Pitot static tube traverse mechanism to make sure students in the class know how to adjust the probe height for taking wake velocity measurements.

The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color and racial disparities in health care were at the center of a wide-ranging discussion on Feb. 11 as part of the Rogow Distinguished Visiting Lecture Series. “The number one determining factor of life expectancy Sarah Lewis, VP of Health is something as simple as five digits: your ZIP code,” said Dr. Equity, Diversity, and inclusion for Hartford Reginald Eadie, president and CEO of Trinity Health Of New HealthCare. England. He and his fellow panelists discussed the impact of historic practices such as redlining on the health of communities of color. The panelists also discussed the need to dispel myths about the COVID-19 vaccine. “We need many more truth-tellers out there to gain the trust in the community that we need in order to be successful fighting this virus,” said Tekisha Everette, executive director of Health Equity Solutions.

SUMMER 2021

08 / UNOTES / NEWS

FROM

CAMPUS

BRIE FS

Karen V. Duhamel, assistant professor of nursing, received the Nightingale Award for Excellence in Nursing last September from Hartford HealthCare at Home. The Nightingale Award celebrates and elevates the nursing profession and recognizes nurses who have made a significant impact on patient care and the profession. The award is named for Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. Duhamel has served on the College of Education, Nursing and Health Professions faculty since 2011 and was named program director of the Master of Science in Nursing program last year. She has extensive experience in behavioral health nursing, case management, and project management. Duhamel is a committed lifelong learner and is passionate about teaching and advancing nursing as a noble profession. Amy Weiss joined the UHart community in January as director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies. She previously directed the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education at Saint Elizabeth University in Morristown, New Jersey. Weiss, who will also serve as assistant professor of Judaic studies and history, and director of the Museum of Jewish Civilization, has also taught Judaic studies and American history at Rutgers University and The City College of New York. “We are very much looking forward to the next era of the Greenberg Center under Amy’s leadership,” says College of Arts and Sciences Dean Katherine Black. “She brings a wealth of administrative experience, scholarship, and teaching to the Greenberg Center.”

Working Together Students assist community arts organization The University of Hartford and Five Points Center for the Visual Arts (FPCVA) are partnering on a new initiative to assist FPCVA in its opening of a world-class art center in Torrington, Connecticut. While the well-known gallery will remain downtown, the new FPCVA site, located on what was formerly the University of Connecticut’s Torrington regional campus, will include a 30,000-square-foot classroom building and 90 bucolic acres that will be transformed into a dynamic facility for cutting-edge exploration and community-driven activity. The Art Center is planned as a state-ofthe-art cross disciplinary facility complete with an Art Park focused on the ecology and planet sustainability. The Center, when fully operational, will offer artists and community members access to workspaces equipped for printmaking, alternative

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

photograph processing, ceramics, digital art, sculpture, painting, drawing, and 3D fabrication. The 245-seat auditorium will offer artist talks and documentaries. Visitors will be able to enroll in workshops, drop their kids off at the Children’s Lab, enjoy a snack from the café, explore the library with more than 1,000 publications, browse the gift shop, meditate in the Courtyard Sensory Garden, walk the Art Park’s paths and trails (with four-legged friends), create, explore, relax, and learn. Students throughout UHart’s schools and colleges will have a unique opportunity to collaborate with FPCVA while contributing to different aspects of this initiative based on their programs and talents. Various projects were incorporated into the curriculum during the spring semester, and other students are working on projects through

UNOTES / NEWS

“The best part is that the work is not being done in separate silos, but rather, students from different areas are working together and bringing their work into the community.”

JUDITH MCELHONE ’88, M’94, FIVE POINTS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

internships at FPCVA. This new initiative will offer significant value to the new Center while creating real-life, hands-on student learning opportunities. Students in the Barney School of Business; the School of Communication in the College of Arts and Sciences; the Hartford Art School; and the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture will contribute various projects, including: • Developing a marketing plan based on competitive analysis and target market analysis • Assisting with marketing and public relations, including creative projects such as producing invitations and brochures • Contributing to the physical plant through projects including a print shop, HVAC analysis, and developing a Courtyard Sensory Garden “All of us at the University of Hartford are delighted and look forward to continuing this partnership with FPCVA,” says UHart Senior Director for Strategic and

Corporate Engagement Lynn Baronas. “Our ongoing partnership is important in so many respects—our students will learn and grow through work on crossdisciplinary project teams, and will contribute to the launch of what promises to be a significant cultural destination in Connecticut’s Northwest Hills.” This opportunity stems from a nearly five-year partnership between UHart and FPCVA. Five Points Executive Director Judith McElhone ’88, M’94, who earned her BFA and MFA from the Hartford Art School, holds a passion for education and community outreach, serving as a trailblazer for the next generation of artists. What makes this initiative so unique, McElhone explains, is how students from different majors across campus have the chance to work together. “What’s amazing to me about this new partnership is that the University is so forward thinking in that it is giving its students real-life experience in their classes. The best part is that the work is not being done in separate silos, but rather, students from different areas are working together and bringing their work into the community.” McElhone also praises the faculty and staff at the University of Hartford who are involved in this initiative, describing them as some of the most committed and compassionate professionals she has ever met. “This partnership truly benefits many individuals,” she says, including UHart students and local artists—and will continue to do so once the Center officially opens. “The fact that I can be part of this is exciting.”

FROM

CAMPUS

/ 09

With the COVID crisis highlighting health disparities in the region, UHart is working with several local health partners to increase vaccination rates. Since the beginning of the year, UHart’s Department of Nursing has worked with the West Hartford-Bloomfield Public Health District at weekly vaccine clinics. Students and faculty in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program have volunteered at more than 35 clinics to date, helping to vaccinate thousands of residents of the two towns. In April, student volunteers in UHart’s EMS program, along with Public Safety staff, volunteered at Hartford HealthCare’s vaccination clinic at Hartford’s North United Methodist Church. Mark Boxer ’83 was named executive vice president and chief operating officer at the University of Hartford last summer following his retirement from Cigna, where he served as global chief information officer for nine years. He was responsible for driving Cigna’s worldwide technology strategy and overseeing the health company’s technology operations, digital capabilities, analytics, and ventures. Prior to joining Cigna, Boxer held leadership roles with the Xerox Corporation, Anthem, and Hewlett Packard. A champion for advancing the employment of people with different abilities, he is a recipient of the American Association of People with Disabilities “Justice for All” Award. “To have someone of the caliber and experience of Mark Boxer join our leadership team at this moment in time is truly a gift,” says UHart President Gregory Woodward. “He loves his undergraduate alma mater and will play a significant role in how we successfully and strategically respond to the unprecedented challenges higher education is facing.”

SUMMER 2021

10 / UNOTES / NEWS

FROM

CAMPUS

IN THE CLASSROOM

Improvising A look at engaging and creative ways of teaching and learning in UHart’s classrooms This issue, we introduce you to two Hillyer College courses, both having to improvise due to pandemic restrictions.

Global Pop Music Course Features Live Musicians

In Assistant Professor of Music Ju-Yong Ha’s Global Pop Music course, students study pop music from around the world to learn about different cultures. As part of the curriculum, Ha usually invites performers to campus to share their music and culture with students. “Last spring, I had scheduled a performance with musicians from Korea, but had to cancel it due to the pandemic,” he says. Last semester, Ha did not have to look very far to find live musicians. He invited Hillyer College Office Coordinator Sandra Roach and her bandmate, Donald Thompson, to share the music of the Caribbean with the class. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Roach says her husband taught her how to play the steel drums 18 years ago. They later formed a band, De 4 Ahwee & Co., and now perform different genres of music such as calypso, reggae, gospel, R&B, and more in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.

“I explained the different types of steel drums and the difference between the two steel drums we played in the class,” says Roach. She says they played a song that the students knew, so they could listen and enjoy the sounds of the Caribbean. “I was very impressed to find that the students were interested in the steel drums and learning about the history.” A composer and ethnomusicologist, Ha’s course also covers the music of South America, India, Korea and K-pop, Japan, China, and Indonesia, before moving on to the Middle East, Afro-pop, and Europeanpop. “This type of course works well for our undergraduate students by giving them a broad picture and understanding of the function of pop music,” he says.

Every Story Tells a Picture: English Composition Through Art Workshop

Professor of English Michele Troy has been integrating art into her writing courses for several years. It began when she realized that students engaged much more with their writing if they created artwork to go along with it. “They have to be clear about their literary idea if they know they

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

are going to translate it into visual form,” she says. Troy begins her composition course with a unit that invites students to create both verbal and visual selfportraits. They begin with a reading, chapter three of Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit: “The Golden Rule of Habit Change: Why Transformation Occurs,” which prompts discussion about what strengths students bring to college, and what habits they might want to change to become the selves they envision. With this thinking behind them, they write a This I Believe essay, based on a National Public Radio program, which Troy frames as a verbal self-portrait: a personal story that explains how they came to this belief and why it matters to them. In the past, Troy completed this unit by taking students to the New Britain Museum of Art, where the self-portraits hanging in the galleries inspired them to paint their own self-portraits. Yet because the pandemic made a museum trip impossible last semester, Troy found a different solution for engaging her students. Armed with hand sanitizer, art supplies, and composition notebooks, Troy had the 18 students, all wearing face masks, spread out along a long, empty hallway in Hillyer Hall. Troy says it was fascinating to occupy the hallway in this way. She discovered it was important for the students to share the same space and be seen, especially since they cannot fully see one another with everyone wearing masks. “They became animated and shared their good and bad habits,” she says. “Then when I let them loose on the art supplies, it became very quiet. The process helped them think about how they would approach writing about what they believe in, who they are, and what is going to help them become the self they want to become.”

UNOTES / NEWS

SEEN & HEARD

FAC E BOOK

Congratulations to LEAD student Jada Hill ’23 for publishing her poetry book, Flower Guarding … “By publishing this poetry book, I feel that I’m beginning my journey in helping others.” #uhart4life

IN STAGRA M

It is groundhog day! Do you think Howie will see his shadow? Will winter persist or is spring coming? #groundhogday #shadow #howiethehawk

T W IT T E R

The National Society of Black Engineers wants to see 10,000 Black engineers graduate by 2025. #UHart’s student chapter is doing its part to reach that goal by supporting its members to excel academically and positively impact the community. #blackhistorymonth2021

FROM

CAMPUS

/ 11

Engineering a Business Plan CETA students place first in Barney School Pitch Competition What started as a final project for one of their courses turned into a first-place winning idea during the Barney School of Business Pitch Competition last fall. Five mechanical engineering seniors in the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA) designed an innovative ventilation system, transforming how individuals experience indoor dining during COVID-19. Jack Breton ’21, Jenny Parsons ’21, Drew Farkas ’21, Ian Walls ’21, and Dylan McAllister ’21 were students in the fall 2020 Thermal and Mechanical System Design course taught by Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Kamau Wright. Wright was inspired to incorporate design challenges related to his research interests in thermo-fluids analysis and engineering into his coursework. “I have emphasized using localized heating, cooling, and flow systems in common areas that people are interested in safely operating,” he says. “A tangible example is, going out to dinner with someone who is not in your household. Or inviting extended family over for dinner. Eating occurs without masks. How can we make these types of interactions safer?” The goal of the final project was for students to develop a novel design and solution with the goal of helping people to safely minimize social distance in various environments where SARS-CoV-2 is present and there is a risk of human-to-human transmission of COVID-19. The students worked together to use thermo-fluid analysis, supporting engineering concepts, research, and a spirit of innovation to bring their projects to life. The students’ winning project was a ventilated table enclosure for restaurants to help isolate tables in an indoor dining environment. The goals of this project were to help control the spread of COVID-19 in indoor dining spaces by increasing airflow at each table and removing particles generated while talking or eating. The “dirty” air from each table is then filtered before being released outside the restaurant. As a business model, the students suggested how they could design, optimize, install, and lease out these systems to restaurants during the pandemic so restaurants could remain open and ensure that they continue to make a profit while offering a safe dining experience. It was Breton who discovered an Instagram post about the competition, which was open to all majors. He thought the team’s idea for the project was extremely relevant to the current times and was developed enough to be able to give a one-minute elevator pitch about it. “Aside from having an interest in technical engineering, I truly enjoy communicating ideas, public speaking, and developing my business skills, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to use those skills,” he says. “I am even more appreciative that the Barney School of Business allowed students from all majors to participate in the event, because it shows how true collaboration can happen at UHart.” As aspiring engineers, this added experience further helped the students understand the connection between business and engineering. Parsons mentioned, even as someone pursuing mechanical engineering, she hopes to explore a role in management later in her career. “I believe it is very important to understand the role of business when pitching projects and ideas because you could have the best idea in the world, but if you do not know how to present it, no one will be interested,” she says. Breton has a long-term goal of owning his own company one day, “so learning as many business and communication skills as possible will surely help in the long run.” McAllister adds that in many companies, engineers end up working with other individuals who manage business and marketing aspects of the company. “This experience will give young engineers a competitive edge, and even an easier acclimation process, into major companies that have a large staff.”

Jack Breton ’21

SUMMER 2021

1 2 / H AW K ’ S E Y E V I E W /

THE

BIG

PICTURE

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

The New Normal on Campus Daily health screenings, PCR tests, and contact tracing entered the everyday lexicon of the University of Hartford community during the 2020–21 academic year. Classes and life on campus resumed last fall—albeit in a much different way than ever before. “Keeping Hawks Healthy” was the year’s theme—and students, faculty, and staff responded as UHart became a model school for how to successfully and safely maintain on-campus living and learning through both semesters of the academic year. Two key tools were introduced on campus to help keep the community safe. A team of 14 registered nurses conducted professional contact tracing, a contrast to many other universities that relied on students or staff. The University also took an unusual precaution in implementing wastewater testing, which indicates the prevalence of COVID-19 within a community and pinpoints a rise in infections before positive tests occur.

SUMMER 2021

2 8 / F E AT U R E

HARTFORD ART SCHOOL PROFESSOR ILLUMINATES THE INVISIBLE through a historical lens

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

FIRST CLASS /

Marisa Williamson has been challenging the boundaries of the past and present for a good part of her life. Through video, imagemaking, installation, and performance, Williamson interprets themes in history, race, feminism, and technology to bring her audience a new awareness. “I make art in order to forge new relationships between people and the things around them,” the self-described project-based artist says. “I’m interested in how you can learn more about the place where you live by asking tough questions and learning about its history.” An assistant professor of 4-D foundations at the Hartford Art School since 2018, Williamson took a scenic route to the University. “When I first got the job, I also got a residency on the New England Scenic Trail, which is a 215-mile hiking trail from southern Connecticut—Old Saybrook— up to Northfield, Massachusetts,” she says. “That was through the National Park Service, the Connecticut Forest & Park [Association], and the Appalachian Mountain Club. That really helped me get to know the region and come to appreciate what it means to be an artist working in New England.” The resulting “Monuments to Escape”—a series of interconnected scenes, mementos, postcards, performances, videos, and adventures gathered by the artist, her collaborators, and the public—recently ended a run at Real Art Ways in Hartford. “The project was all about asking what monuments are missing from the New England Scenic Trail and which voices aren’t being heard,” Williamson emphasizes. “There are 12 different postcards that go into a postcard book, and on each postcard is a proposal for a monument that should exist on the trail. Each one is a collaboration with another artist or activist—Black artists, indigenous food experts, people who have lived in the region.” Williamson, who earned her bachelor’s at Harvard University and her MFA at the California Institute of the Arts, grew up in Philadelphia, imagining a career in architecture. “I liked to draw and I liked to set up spaces and think about how to engineer a small space, and I liked to

SPOTLIGHT

FAC U LT Y / 1 5

think about how people use spaces and feel when they’re inside spaces,” she says. “I went to college thinking I was very good at a lot of things, and something you learn [in college] is that there are people who are much better than you are at some of the things you think you were doing well. I found that art was something I really liked doing and could do well.” When not teaching, mentoring, or contributing to the Faculty Senate’s curriculum committee, Williamson spends her time in South Orange, New Jersey, with her partner, Thomas Lidbetter, an assistant professor at Rutgers Business School. She also lives in West Hartford, where she and her colleague, Billie Lee, a Jackie McLean Fellow who teaches painting and drawing at HAS, are taking on another frequently ignored space. “We’ve been working on a project that’s about mapping and creating a guidebook for people to examine shame and the places in their own life experience that they don’t generally go—or try to avoid going,” Williamson says.

Photos by Corinne Thrash, UW College of Arts & Sciences

The work, born in collaboration with Hartford dancer Arien Wilkerson, is meant to address the shuttered, PCB-contaminated John C. Clark Elementary School in Hartford’s North End. “Arien and another artist and I were all trying to think about how this school represents an anti-monument,” Williamson explains. “So, I have been continuing to work with Arien and Billie to figure out how that project takes shape, either as a dance or a textbook or forms that model things that might happen inside of school. [We want] to monumentalize and educate people around some of the themes that the school brings up, which I think are shame and problems of neglect, and how we care for— or fail to care for—certain spaces and certain people in our New England cities.” Bringing the invisible to light is also a working theme for an escape room that Williamson and Cherokee Cowherd ’22 are collaborating on for Cowherd’s University Scholars project. It “was a project that I had made as an artist, but Cherokee is going to make it virtual, so we’ve been talking about how the escape room can be played online,” Williamson says. “The themes of the room are that it teaches from the lives of three women enslaved in colonial America: Phillis Wheatley, Tituba (the first woman accused of being a witch in Salem Village), and Sally Hemings,” whose life as the enslaved mother of four of Thomas Jefferson’s children is part of Williamson’s ongoing body of work. Through the escape room, Williamson and Cowherd are focusing on “making the experience of contemporary black women visible, and challenging viewers to think about their own relationship to the past. [The project also draws] in elements of contemporary technology to get us to think about this idea of escape or not being able to escape,” Williamson says. “That’s been pretty exciting to work on, in addition to just teaching my integrated media classes and connecting with students.” Making those connections with students while navigating a pandemic has not been easy, but Williamson has built a career on establishing relationships in unexpected circumstances. “During COVID, our students are going through so much,” Williamson— who taught in the classroom this past semester—observes. “I think, right now, this idea of how to listen to them and get to know them is actually very challenging, but also it’s exactly why I do what I do—to make them feel known.” H SUMMER 2021

1 6 / F E AT U R E

A Hartt

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE Julius Hartt (standing) with his student Moshe Paranov, circa 1918. In 1920 Hartt, Parvanov, Pauline Hartt, and Samuel Berkman founded the Julius Hartt School of Music.

F E AT U R E / 1 7

-felt Reflection Between his time as a Hartt student and administrator, and his years serving as the classical music critic and editor for the Hartford Courant, Steve Metcalf ’70 has experienced The Hartt School through multiple lenses over a span of six decades. In celebration of Hartt’s 100th anniversary, Steve helps us relive the School’s storied history and shares the road that led him to become part of The Hartt School community. Adapted from the foreword written for the book One Hundred Years of Hartt: A Centennial Celebration of The Hartt School by Demaris Hansen, Wesleyan University Press, 2020 (available at leading online book sellers). In the fall of 1964, as I was beginning my senior year of high school in Schenectady, New York, my longtime piano teacher asked me what colleges I was going to apply to. I said I didn’t know. I knew I wanted to pursue music somehow or other, but beyond that, I didn’t have much of a game plan. She said there was a school in Connecticut that she had heard good things about. The school was the Hartt College of Music, in Hartford. I had never heard of it. But at my teacher’s urging, I applied. A few months later, on a cold Saturday in January, I drove over to Hartford to visit and to audition. Hartt was part of the recently founded University of Hartford, whose spacious campus had just opened a year and a half earlier. Truth to tell, in those days, it wasn’t much

of a campus—just a handful of buildings and a lot of lawn. But the buildings were handsome and new, and the place had an open, promising kind of feel. I had taken a couple of auditions already, and I was ready, or thought I was, for how these things worked: “All right, tell us what you have prepared.” Followed by: “Thank you. We’ll let you know.” By contrast, the people at Hartt who greeted and interviewed me were friendly, engaging. The man who listened to my piano audition somehow wound up talking to me about baseball and politics along with Beethoven and Poulenc. Driving home, and over the following weeks, I thought about the school’s unusually welcoming vibe. Later that spring, when it came time to decide where I would go to college, I chose Hartt.

From left: Robert Black with double bass students, Dance performance, Hartt Community Division private lesson

From left: Hansel and Gretel—the first complete opera to be shown in its entirety on television—1943, Hartt Steelband, Edward Diemente in the electronic music studio—1970s

As I discovered in the fall, Hartt was Edward Miller (1930–2013), a wry a place with an endless cast of vivid and cerebral composer by day and personalities. Among them: hard-swinging jazz trombone player by night. Professor Miller’s local standing The cosmopolitan, Ferrari-driving comrocketed upward, at least among some of poser Arnold Franchetti (1906–1993), us, when we learned that he was a good whose father, Alberto, also a composer, friend of legendary Mad Magazine carhad been a friend of Puccini. Professor toonist Don Martin. Franchetti told us stories about having dodged the Fascist regime in Italy, and In a different category, I can recall occaof having somehow gotten himself to sionally glimpsing the courtly Alfred Munich, where he talked his way into the “A. C.” Fuller (1885–1973), who was known composition class of Richard Strauss. around the world for having created the Fuller Brush Company. Starting in the The stylish, pixie-like pianist and vocal 1930s, Fuller had become the school’s coach Irene Kahn (1904–1996), who principal donor and benefactor, and Hartt would joke about her vast collection of old timers always went out of their way to shoes one moment, and then, without acknowledge that the school never could missing a beat—literally—sit down at have succeeded without him. the piano and cold sight-read a thorny, 20th-century opera score as if she had But the dominant personality of this known it for years. personality-rich school was its co-founder and, for more than half a century, its Joseph Iadone (1914–2004), one of the unquestioned leader, Moshe Paranov great lute players of the 20th century and (1895–1994). a brilliant teacher of ear training and Even to a clueless 17-year-old college sight-singing, who nevertheless, with freshman, it was apparent that this was his shambling gait and impish mustache, an exceptional human being. looked as if he might have been a Short, animated, with a gray shock character created by Peter Sellers. of Einstein hair, Paranov immediately

demonstrated to us that he knew how to work a room. His welcoming address to the incoming students was basically a rapid-fire assortment of his signature quips and cautions: “So your aunt Matilda thinks you’re a musical genius. That’s wonderful, but I’ve got news for you—the rest of the world couldn’t care less.” “You call yourself a musician because you know Beethoven’s Fifth? Well, what about Monteverdi’s ‘Orfeo?’ Or the Piano Concerto of Busoni? Or the songs of Wolf? And when you learn those, come and see me. I’ll give you a few hundred more.” “Music is a great gift, but it’s a tough way to make a living. That’s because the average person today doesn’t know Beethoven from a ham sandwich.” And, with an extra finger waggle for emphasis: “There’s no such thing as too much practicing. Keep going—it can always be better.”

Almost half a century earlier, in the fall of 1920, Paranov, then a 25-year-old aspiring pianist, had teamed up with his mentor and future father-in-law, one

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE From left: The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby—2016, René and Jackie McLean performing for students—1988

From left: Student recording a jazz trio in the newly renovated recording studio, Music lessons for children—1950, Ed Bolkovac conducting vocal students

Julius Hartt, to open a school. Mr. Hartt was an organist and musicologist, but he seems to have mainly supported himself, precariously we can be sure, as a newspaper music critic. The two men, along with Mr. Hartt’s pianist daughter, Pauline—soon to be Moshe’s wife—and one or two colleagues, hung their collective shingle outside Julius’s home on a leafy street in Hartford, offering music instruction to customers of all ages. They paid themselves pittances—when they could afford to pay themselves at all. By and by, the school managed to grow to the point where it was able to move, first to a larger house, and then, in 1938, to a castle-like turreted brick edifice that had previously been home to the Hartford Seminary. Though he had had no experience as an administrator and did not himself possess an academic degree, Paranov expanded the school’s curriculum to include music education, theory and composition, conducting, and all the other disciplines required for an accredited, degree-granting conservatory. He also, despite a budget that he invariably called “laughable,” brought to Hartford an impressive procession of

visiting musical eminences, including pianists Harold Bauer and Dame Myra Hess, violinist Isaac Stern, soprano Eileen Farrell, composers William Schuman and Aaron Copland, and scores of others. How did he do this, exactly? Sheer tenacity apparently played a major role. Moshe liked to tell the story about his having once called the celebrated cellist Leonard Rose, asking if he would come up from New York to give a couple of master classes. Hearing the puny honorarium, Rose begged off. But Moshe persisted, sweetening the offer with the promise of a home-cooked Jewish dinner featuring his specialty, sautéed whitefish. Sensing that Rose might be wavering, Moshe went on to describe in detail the cornmeal-based batter that he used, right down to the seasonings. Rose said he would be up before the end of the week. A hundred years is a long time, especially in musical terms. It’s the amount of time between the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth and the premiere of “Rhapsody in Blue.” We know there were moments when

Moshe and his troupe wondered if their school would make it through the next semester, much less survive for a century. The school’s finances were particularly shaky during the Depression and World War II. According to lore, in some of those lean times, the aforementioned Mr. Fuller would be tapped to cover the school’s end-of-year deficit with a personal check. The lore says that he did so. The decision to become part of the new University of Hartford, in 1957, was pivotal, of course—the end of one era and beginning of another. If the change meant a certain loss of independence, it also meant stability and fresh opportunities for growth. Moshe officially retired in 1971, but the school marched on. It added a jazz major, overseen by the alto sax virtuoso Jackie McLean. Its opera program acquired a national reputation. In addition to its increasingly distinguished resident faculty, it continued to host a string of “name” guests: Marian Anderson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yehudi Menuhin, Dizzy Gillespie, Karl Bohm, John Cage, and Wynton Marsalis. In the early 1980s, it signed a young, unheralded string quartet to an informal

From left: Dance Studio in the Mort and Irma Handel Performing Art Center, Moshe Paranov and Samuel Berkman (rear) teaching score analysis

2 0 / F E AT U R E

residency. The group called itself the Emerson Quartet, in honor of Ralph Waldo. The appointment was mildly controversial within the school because, well, no one had heard of them. The Emersons had a reply to the doubters: they worked hard, performed tirelessly, and, not too many years after their arrival here, found themselves being acknowledged as one of the two or three premier string quartets in the world. Their Hartt residency, for the record, lasted 21 years. The school officially added degree programs in dance and theatre in the early 1990s. It was a bold, even risky move, but against all odds, these new disciplines quickly flourished and became as essential to the identity of the school as music. If we can agree that the rise of The Hartt School from its shoestring origins was something of a miracle, then we can also agree that in the fall of 2008, there occurred a sequel, a follow-up miracle. That would be the opening of the Mort and Irma Handel Performing Arts Center. Built in a lively melting-pot city neighborhood, a mile or so from the main campus, the Center was created as a proper and permanent home for the now-burgeoning dance and theatre activities. Fashioned from the crumbling brick shell of a defunct Cadillac dealership, the $30-million complex was a triumph of town-gown diplomacy, marathon fundraising, and ingenious architectural repurposing. (Does the word miracle seem like overstatement? I invite you to drop over some afternoon—to this place where customers once brought in their Fleetwoods and Coupe deVilles for a transmission flush—and watch the current generation of Hartt kids hurl themselves into Petrushka or Sunday in the Park with George. Then get back to me.)

And now, almost suddenly it seems, The Hartt School, as it was eventually renamed, finds itself celebrating its centennial. Moshe Paranov didn’t get to see this milestone, of course; didn’t quite get to

see his little clapboard house evolve into an internationally known conservatory with 600 students from all over the U.S. and 20-odd foreign countries. He gave it a good run, though—he died in 1994, a few weeks shy of his 99th birthday. These days, when I’m at the school for a meeting or event, I make a point of taking note of the sights and sounds coming from the rows of practice rooms and teaching studios and rehearsal spaces. In recent months, walking these corridors—sometimes at the Fuller building where the music activities are still housed, and sometimes at the Handel Center, I have randomly overheard: A pianist struggling, heroically, to smooth out a passage in Chopin’s “Heroic” Polonaise; a young woman in the music theatre program belting out “Promises, Promises” (I couldn’t help wondering if she knew that the artist who made that song famous—the great Dionne Warwick—is a Hartt alum); the orchestra rehearsing the deceptively modern Fifth Symphony of Sibelius; a dance class warming up to an old Gladys Knight and the Pips song; the wind ensemble playing the heck out of Samuel Barber’s “Commando March”; the jazz ensemble wailing on an updated arrangement of Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke”; the school’s crackerjack new-music group, Foot in the Door, reading through some impressively out-there student compositions; a violinist taking on the daredevil final section of Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy; a couple of young dudes doing an almost perfect cover of “Dear Theodosia”; a choir blowing the roof off the place with Bernstein’s “Make Our Garden Grow.” At moments like these, I sometimes think of Moshe Paranov. I can’t be entirely sure what he would have made of his school having reached the century mark. Some mixture of pride and amazement, I suppose. What I think I can say for certain is that he would have stuck his head into some of these rehearsal rooms—or more likely each and every one of them—and said, “Good, that’s good. Now keep going. It can always be better.” H

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

HARTT

LEGACY Steve Metcalf ’70 Journalist, administrator, pianist, and composer For more than 20 years, he was the full-time staff classical music critic/editor of the Hartford Courant, chronicling the musical life of Connecticut and the wider world. His experiences and roles as part of The Hartt School community have covered many decades, both before and after his newspaper days: undergraduate student, graduate student, assistant dean, director of instrumental studies, founder and curator of the Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series, and a member of The Hartt School Board of Trustees (he is today a lifetime honorary trustee). The Hartt School honored him as its Alumnus of the Year in 1989.

Michael Larco

Hartt Community Division, 1993–95 SUZUKI Violist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Michael Larco joined the internationally renowned Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra in July 2012. Prior to that, he spent seven years as assistant principal violist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Larco previously served as principal violist of the Juilliard Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. In recent seasons, he has performed in the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. His virtual instruction through the “Learn from a Master” series, 25 video lessons for the beginning viola student, is available on YouTube.

Lisa Borres ’11

F E AT U R E / 2 1

COMPOSITION

Selected to join the world-renowned Paul Taylor Dance Company Lisa Borres debuted with the Paul Taylor Dance Company at Jacob’s Pillow in July 2019. “It’s such an amazing feeling in this place,” Borres said at the time. “When you get here, there is just such a calming vibe and energy. It’s just been the best week of my life so far.” She has also performed with the Amy Marshall Dance Company, Elisa Monte Dance, DAMAGEdance, Lydia Johnson Dance, and LEVYdance. Since 2012, Borres has been part of the selection process for Ballet Tech, a tuition-free school that draws its students from the New York City public school system.

Phillip Boykin ’95 VOCAL

Broadway and beyond Phillip Boykin’s website puts it simply, “The boy can entertain.” Whether it’s Broadway, opera, film, or stage, he, as Hartt School co-founder Moshe Paranov put it, is “a talented and gifted man with extraordinary charisma and major stage presence that electrifies and captivates audiences.” The bass-baritone made Broadway history in 2017 as the first African American Boatman/Lee Randolph in Sunday in the Park with George and played TonTon Julian in the 2018 Tony Award-winning revival of Once On This Island. In 2012, Boykin was nominated for the Tony Award, among others, for Outstanding Featured Actor in a musical for his role as Crown in the Broadway revival of Porgy and Bess.

Kenneth Boucher ’90 MUSIC EDUCATION

Multi-talented music educator and artistic performer With a proven aptitude in breaking musical stereotypes while embracing diverse music styles, Ken Boucher has been dedicated to instilling music appreciation and literacy in students for three decades. He has taught in urban public schools and designed Kodály-inspired curricula for public, Montessori, and French immersion schools. For 17 years, Boucher has served as chair of music education at the Center for the Visual and Performing Arts at Suitland High School, a rigorous four-year program for artistically talented high school students from Maryland’s Prince George’s County.

Ta’Nika Gibson

Hartt Community Division, 2017 VOICE Actor, singer, and voice-over artist Ta’Nika Gibson speaks loudly not only with her clear and ringing voice, but also with her passion for making a difference in people’s lives—whether it’s through teaching music to impoverished children around the world or showing kindness to everyone she meets. In 2014, Gibson’s performance in the musical Aida at the Strand Theater in Boston scored rave reviews. “Beautiful Ta’Nika Gibson tackles the role of Aida and makes it her own not only with her acting, singing, and dancing prowess but with her regal bearing,” stated the Theater Mirror. In more recent years, she made her film debut in the The Goldfinch, starring Nicole Kidman and Ansel Elgort; her television debut in the second season of Marvel’s Iron Fist on Netflix; and was a featured soloist at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall.

Wu Han ’83 INSTRUMENTAL

IN THE NEWS Matthew Brooks ’03 Bringing Music and Medicine Together Matthew Brooks ’03, a graduate of Hartt’s music education program, has joined with colleagues around the country to start an all-volunteer organization, the National Association of Medical Orchestras (NAMO). Serving as founding music director and conductor of the Nebraska Medical Orchestra, Brooks is assistant professor and director of orchestral activities in music and medicine at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), where he serves on the faculties of its School of Music, UNO Medical Humanities, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine. “Our goal with the NAMO is to bring medical orchestra musicians and medical orchestra leaders together and help create fellowship and resources to improve the ability of medical orchestras to make music,” Brooks explains. “Medical orchestras can bring so much joy and connection to their members and communities, and we think it is important to support this humanistic movement in medicine, especially when things are so difficult for medical and medically adjacent professionals.”

An esteemed figure in the classical music world It was at the young age of nine when Wu Han began her musical studies in Taiwan, studying piano, viola, and percussion. Within three years, she was playing concerts and winning competitions. At The Hartt School’s invitation, she came to America in 1981 to continue her studies with a double major in viola and piano. Han has since risen to international prominence through wide-ranging activities as a concert performer, recording artist, educator, arts administrator, and cultural entrepreneur. She received Musical America’s Musician of the Year award in 2012, and is currently the co-artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Today in Korea, and Music@Menlo in California.

Wayne Escoffery ’97 JAZZ

Grammy Award-winning tenor saxophonist Escoffery is one of the jazz world’s most talented rising stars. In 2006, he secured a frontline position in Tom Harrell’s working quintet. For more than 10 years, Escoffery toured the globe with the trumpeter, recorded seven CDs with The Tom Harrell Quintet, and co-produced four of those releases. Called a “powerful, passionate player” by The New York Times, Escoffery is a founding member of the Black Art Jazz Collective, which is dedicated to celebrating the origins of jazz and African American icons through originally composed music.

2 2 / F E AT U R E

IN THE NEWS Gabrielle Collins Hartt Community Division, 2009–14 DANCE Dancing at the age of five In 2020, Gabrielle Collins joined the Cincinnati Ballet, which since 1963 has been the cornerstone professional ballet company of that region. She spent the previous season as a company member with the Dayton Ballet, where she performed the title role in Carmen. Collins previously spent time with the Atlanta Ballet II, Tulsa Ballet II, and the ballet program at Jacob’s Pillow. In 2014, she won the gold medal at the Connecticut Classic in both the senior female and pas de deux categories. That same year, Collins was a New York City finalist at the Youth America Grand Prix international ballet competition.

Brandee Younger ’06 MUSIC MANAGEMENT

A leading voice of the harp today A versatile artist who pushes the creative envelope, Younger defies genres and labels. A harpist, composer, and educator, her musical formulas are too intricate for a single genre. In addition to four solo album releases, she has shared stages with jazz leaders and R&B titans. Her ability to feature the harp in genres of music where the instrument is often absent demonstrates her cross-reaching ability as a musician. “I stripped myself of labels,” Younger explains, “and got over the idea of throwing myself into a mental box. People will categorize you to make themselves feel better, but that’s on them. Those labels aren’t mine.”

Hartt Alumnus Makes Himself Part of History A Grammy-nominated composer, orchestrator, and conductor, Peter Boyer is one of the most frequently performed American orchestral composers of his generation. His works have received over 500 public performances by nearly 200 orchestras, and thousands of broadcasts by classical radio stations around the world. Boyer was commissioned by the United States Marine Band to compose a special fanfare that was performed at the Inauguration of President Joe Biden this past January. Boyer’s new work, “Fanfare for Tomorrow,” was performed as part of the one-hour prelude music of the Inauguration. The composition, just over two-and-a-half-minutes in length, was inspired by the hope that we are “thinking ahead to, hopefully, brighter tomorrows for all of us.” It is based on a shorter piece that Boyer wrote for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which last summer introduced a fanfare project featuring solo musicians in quarantine. Boyer received the official request for the inaugural music on New Year’s Day—with a deadline of just a dozen days later. His days were consumed by working on the piece, with the only breaks for sleeping and eating.

Douglas Lyons ’09

While the current pandemic prevented him from being in Washington, D.C., in person for the Inauguration, Boyer recorded the events of the day on several cable news channels. You can be sure he will be taking extra special care not to hit “delete.”

THEATRE

Award-winning composer-playwright and actor It was during his training in Hartt’s musical theatre program when Douglas Lyons took a year hiatus to tour with the Tony Awardwinning RENT. Following his graduation, he went on to perform on Broadway and tour with shows such as The Book of Mormon and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. In his work as a composer-lyricist, he strives to use diverse stories to inspire children through art and remind them of their fullest potential and worth. He also has an important reminder for the theatre industry. “Going forward, equity needs to be our theme,” Lyons told Playbill recently. “There’s an entire generation of theatre artists waiting in the wings, with fresh stories to tell. Post this pandemic, there’s no acceptable excuse for our stages not to represent our real world.”

Peter Boyer M’93, D’95

Lauren Bernofky ’90 COMPOSITION

Hailed by legendary composer and pianist Lukas Foss as “a master composer” Bernofsky has written more than 100 works, including solo, chamber, and choral music, as well as larger-scale works for orchestra, film, musical, opera, and ballet. Her music has been performed across the United States and internationally in major venues from Carnegie Hall to Grieg Hall in Bergen, Norway. Bernofsky’s works have won the National Flute Association’s Newly Published Music Competition, the Longfellow Chorus Award of Distinction, and an Excellence in Composition Award from the Brass Chamber Music Forum.

Chelsea Knox

Hartt Community Division, 2003–06 INSTRUMENTAL Principal flutist of the MET Orchestra

A sought-after performer, Chelsea Knox is the principal flutist of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The New York Times has praised her for her “warmth, precision, and clarity,” while the New York Classical Review applauds her “expressive life and full tone.” Knox looks forward to that “magical moment” when the MET will be back playing again to a packed house. “That special energy from a live performance is something I am craving right now,” she says. Knox previously held positions as assistant principal flute of the Baltimore Symphony and principal flute of the New Haven and Princeton Symphonies.

Frank and Nancy Hursey bring together their lifelong passions in support of UHart’s newest Academic building

SUMMER 2021

24 / F E AT U R E

ack in the 1960s, when Frank Hursey (A’73, ’77) was a young man living and working in engineering in East Hartford, Connecticut, he had no idea that a party he threw would have such an impact on his future. But when Nancy, a student from the St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing, showed up that night, Frank noticed her beautiful smile immediately. It turns out Frank had the same effect on Nancy—according to her, it was love at first sight. Today, the couple has been married 53 years. Throughout that time, both have had successful careers—Nancy as a nurse; Frank as an engineer, inventor, and business owner—that have touched the lives of countless others. Now in semi-retirement, the Hurseys are proving their careers are lifelong passions— and so is their desire to give back. Both Frank and Nancy’s interest in their respective career fields began in childhood. As a kid growing up in West Hartford, Nancy was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 10 and spent many hours in the hospital. She says the kind nurses inspired her, and she went on to study at St. Francis before working as a nurse for 40 years. She served in many different areas, including the ICU and as a discharge nurse, where she helped coordinate follow-up care for patients, a job which often required her to visit eight different hospitals. Nancy later volunteered her services for a local church, helping provide care for those who could not afford a regular doctor.

“Our interests in engineering and the health professions are a perfect match.” As for Frank, who grew up in South Carolina, his curiosity as a kid eventually led to his interest in engineering. But one day, when he saw that his father was forced to punch a clock at the end of each shift, his dream became even bigger. “I knew at that moment I never wanted to work for someone else, in a job that would require me to punch in and out,” he says. From then on, Frank’s goal was to have his own business. But it took time. At 19, soon after his father passed away, he moved to Connecticut to find work. At the time, he didn’t know what kind of job he was looking for, but he ended up with a gig at aerospace company Pratt & Whitney. There, he contributed to NASA’s Apollo program, working alongside other Pratt & Whitney engineers to develop a fuel cell that would provide electricity and water on board the Apollo command module. “I liked the fact that we were creating something that was going to the moon,” Frank says of the project. “And I was excited that one day I would be able to tell my kids that I worked on that program.” Frank’s projects at Pratt & Whitney inspired him to pursue a degree in engineering, and he began studying at the University

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

The Hurseys tour the Center for the first time, getting a special behind-the-scenes look at the building that bears their name.

of Hartford part time. It took 12 years of attending classes at night for him to earn his degree from the University’s College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA). During this time, he started a new job at Hartford Hospital in the respiratory therapy department, sold home insulation part time, and completed major renovations (everything from woodworking to plumbing and electrical) at the West Hartford home he shared with Nancy. “At my age now, I have no idea how I possibly did this so easily years ago,” Frank says. He went on to earn his master’s degree in business management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (he jokes that degree only took him five years), and in 1987, Frank’s dream of owning his own business came true. He formed On Site Gas Systems, which manufactures portable oxygen and nitrogen generating systems, mainly for industrial uses and the military. The company’s oxygen systems, known as POGS, allow medical oxygen generation even in the most remote locations. Unlike oxygen tanks and cylinders, which are cumbersome to haul and need to be refilled or delivered regularly, POGS can continually produce oxygen with no wait time—they have been used by the military, first responders, emergency disaster relief operations, and hospitals to save lives. When the pandemic swept across the country last spring, On Site Gas Systems began building these POGS for the temporary medical centers that popped up around cities hit hard by the coronavirus. It was these POGS that inspired Frank to invent another life-saving device a couple years after founding On Site Gas Systems. The POGS remove moisture from the air using a clay-based product called zeolite, which works as a sort of water magnet. Frank wondered if the product would work the

The overhead crane in the High-Bay Structural Engineering Lab will be used to move heavy specimens like steel, concrete, or other materials onto a testing frame or an MTS compression/tension machine, which is used for testing mechanical properties such as tension, compression, shear strength, fatigue, and fracture. This gives students the opportunity to see engineering theories put into practice, giving them valuable career-ready skills in their field of study.

same with blood, which is 90 percent water. Would he be able stop a cut from bleeding using zeolite? He brought some home, as well as a few mice to test his theory. Frank retreated to the basement to experiment, while Nancy stayed upstairs screaming, “Don’t hurt the mice!” But it worked out. The bleeding stopped instantly when Frank poured zeolite on the mouse’s cut. Frank’s QuikClot products, like the POGS, are now used by the military, first responders, and hospitals to save lives around the world. Today, Frank and Nancy’s time is occupied by their three children and nine grandchildren, as well as a recent real estate investment—Cape Cod’s fist rooftop bar and restaurant. Frank has also recently started a limo livery service out of Newington, Connecticut. But no matter their success or how busy they get, the University of Hartford is still close to Frank and Nancy’s hearts. Frank joined the CETA Board of Visitors in 2009 and has been an honorary member since 2015. He is also a former University Regent. While he enjoys the people he works with in those positions, he jokes it’s not in him to sit in meetings for three hours. “My meetings have never been more than half an hour,” he says. And despite attending the St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing, Nancy has become sort of an honorary alumna through her husband. “I’m so proud of what Frank has done at the University that I feel like I’m part of it,” she says. “And everyone is so kind here. They treat me like I’m a graduate.” Now the Hurseys are combining their two lifelong passions— nursing and engineering—to help future UHart students succeed. In recognition of a significant gift from the Hurseys, the University recently announced that its newest academic

building, scheduled to open this fall, will be named the Francis X. and Nancy Hursey Center for Advanced Engineering and Health Professions.

“My education here was key. Now I’m in a position to give back.” “Our interests in engineering and the health professions are a perfect match,” Frank says. “(UHart President) Gregory Woodward could foresee the growth of these jobs and that these two entities are keys to the University’s future. Nancy and I are extremely proud and fortunate to be a part of the construction of a structure that, with great teaching professionals, will produce world-class health professionals and engineers. We have that potential.” Frank says the gift is a perfect way to say thank you to the University of Hartford. “My education here was key,” he says. “I never would have gotten to where I am today without it. I was able to start a company, keep that company going, and make it very successful. I took several years to complete my engineering degree and had several years of working for others, but I didn’t have to punch a clock, and once I owned my own business, I never looked back. Now I’m in a position to give back.” H

SUMMER 2021

2 6 / F E AT U R E

Bringing a Building to life When Michael Mishriky ’08 found out that his firm was going to be working on UHart’s new building for advanced engineering and health professions, recently named the Hursey Center, he said to his supervisor, “There is no way I’m not going to be on that job.” A dozen years into his career, Mishriky is working as a superintendent on the new building at his alma mater, sitting no more than 30 feet from the spot on campus where he spent most of his academic career as a student in the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA). The fact that the facility will house programs and students from CETA makes this opportunity even more special for Mishriky.

“There is no way I’m not going to be on that job.” “I never really outgrew the sandbox,” he explains. “As a kid, I was always interested in construction and materials, and I knew I would find a job working in construction—I just didn’t know what exactly that job would be.” When he was looking at colleges, Mishriky wanted something with a construction program, something close to home (Portland, Connecticut), and somewhere where he could live on campus and have the full college experience. His dad, Nabil Mishriky ’93, also graduated from CETA. The younger Mishriky was never a student who loved school, but when he joined the architecture program, he really found his stride. Mishriky had the chance to regularly visit construction sites around the Hartford area during a class he had with Associate Professor of Architecture James Fuller. This experience had a significant impact on Mishriky’s academic experience—and also opened him up to the world of construction management,

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

which he hadn’t fully considered before. On a site visit to the Connecticut Science Center, Mishriky started to really think about the people working on the site and what their careers looked like. He left that day with the project manager’s business card and decided to reach out after the visit. Mishriky landed an internship with the firm that led to a full-time position the day after he graduated. Shortly after starting his internship in the field of construction management, Mishriky realized that it was a perfect fit for him. He loved being on construction sites and working on each stage of a project—seeing a building go from design to reality and contemplating how the functions of a building will impact the community. For the past 10 years, Mishriky has been working on projects in the higher education space that truly make a difference for people. Two of the buildings he worked on as superintendent at the University of Massachusetts are primarily lab and research buildings designed to support cancer research. So not only is the construction fulfilling for him, so, too, is the output and potential from these spaces. Mishriky started his career as a field engineer and has worked his way up to superintendent—he appreciates the investment his firm has made in him and, in turn, enjoys mentoring the young professionals on his projects. He understands how precarious the work-life balance can be when you’re first starting out and giving your career all of your attention. Mishriky tries to pass along the lessons he learned as a young professional—practicing self-care and nurturing life outside of your work—to the next generation of construction management professionals. But these days, it’s hard to get his mind far from the Hursey Center—and its opening this fall. “It still blows my mind to get somewhere, see a grassy hill, and turn that into a building that will stand for the next century,” Mishriky says. H

F E AT U R E / 2 7

ADVANCING ENGINEERING AND HEALTH IN CONNECTICUT AND BEYOND

An artist’s rendering from early in the planning process shows where the building is located on campus.

“Our students are our future. They are the future leaders in the professions that they’re studying for, they are the future leaders of the communities that they’re going to live in, they are the future leaders of our world. And our mission at the University of Hartford is to help prepare them for those roles.”

Courtesy of Payette

The University of Hartford’s Francis X. and Nancy Hursey Center for Advanced Engineering and Health Professions is on track to open this fall. The 60,000-square-foot academic building, situated at the center of campus, will house new, specialized, and technology-rich facilities for UHart’s growing programs in the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture; and the College of Education, Nursing and Health Professions. The placement of the Hursey Center intentionally creates a series of gathering spaces around the building and across the quad. A green roof will aesthetically blend the building with the surrounding environment, while showcasing the many environmentally friendly features contained within. Along with active learning classrooms, research labs, and teaching labs for hands-on learning, the Hursey Center will include: • Mechatronics Lab • Human Performance Lab • Aerospace and • Kinesiology Lab Turbomachinery Labs • 3D Printing Lab • Cybersecurity Lab • Immersive Simulation Suite • Internet of Things Lab • Outpatient Exam Skills Suite • Concrete and Surveying Lab • Occupational Therapy Skills/ • 3D Printing Lab Integration Lab • CNC Machine Lab • Makerspace • High-Bay Structural Engineering Lab • Robotics Lab

David Gordon ’75, Chair, Board of Regents

SUMMER 2021

2 8 / F E AT U R E

A Profile in Courage Nelba Márquez-Greene ’97 finds strength in love, community, and connection Nelba Márquez-Greene ’97 exudes strength. You can see it as she speaks to audiences across the country, bearing witness as the mother of 6-yearold Ana Grace Márquez-Greene, who was killed at Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary School with 19 other first-graders and six staff members in December 2012. Márquez-Greene accepts a dozen or so speaking requests a year, she says. You can read it in her poignant writings on grief and gun violence in national and local publications and in the inspired wisdom she shares with thousands of followers on Facebook and Twitter. You can feel it at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) in New Britain, where, in an office painted a warm purple—Ana Grace’s favorite color— Márquez-Greene directs the community advancement division, a job she has held since November 2020. A licensed marriage and family therapist, MárquezGreene can point to many reservoirs of strength, including a solid family and her unwavering faith. Still, it is her community, she says, that has helped her define it. “I definitely was one of those moms who said if anything were to happen to one of my children, I’d die,” she admits. “We say those things, but what I think is

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

important—and what I’ve learned—is that one of the reasons you go on is because of your community. The University of Hartford has played an integral role in that community from the very beginning, from allowing us to host Ana’s reception there to many of my classmates and professors—former professors and current professors there now—supporting our work in one way or another.” Márquez-Greene; her husband, saxophonist Jimmy Greene ’97; and son, Isaiah, have channeled their grief and gratefulness for the outpouring of support they have received since the Sandy Hook tragedy into many uplifting projects. Greene’s Beautiful Life albums are a tribute to Ana Grace. His new album, While Looking Up, was released earlier this year. A playground in Hartford’s Elizabeth Park, paid for by the Where Angels Play Foundation, also memorializes Ana Grace. The “forever home” of the CREC Ana Grace Academy of the Arts Elementary School is scheduled to open in Bloomfield later this year. Perhaps the dearest memorial, though, is the Ana Grace Project, which Márquez-Greene founded in collaboration with the Klingberg Family Centers in 2013. With the slogan “Love Wins,” the project’s first conference on creating stronger communities took place at the University of Hartford’s Lincoln Theater.

3 0 / F E AT U R E

Though many recent events, like everything else in our society, have shifted to the virtual environment, the Ana Grace Project continues to focus on promoting love, community, and connection for every child and family through several major initiatives. “We do professional development—big conferences like the one we had at the University of Hartford and smaller things,” Márquez-Greene explains. “We also do music and arts by helping fund initiatives in schools. For example, we fund Puerto Rican traditional dance classes and cultural teaching at Maria Sanchez School in Hartford. I love that very much. We have partner schools here in New Britain. Last year, we were able to fund a sensory room at one of our partner schools.” There’s also the annual Love Wins: Finish the Race event in April—the month of Ana Grace’s birthday— which introduces fifth graders to higher education.

Award as part of UHart’s 2020 Anchor Awards. (See page 54 for more on the Anchor Awards, which recognize alumni who have distinguished themselves through their achievements professionally and in the community.) After earning a Bachelor of Arts in music with an emphasis in education, Márquez-Greene was a teacher for a limited time, which is when she noticed that some students did better when she reached out to the families. “I started to realize,” she explains, “that it isn’t just that one-on-one in the classroom with the student; I have to engage the family if I want to make a change. And that got me very curious about marriage and family therapy.” Márquez-Greene proceeded to earn a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from West Hartford’s St. Joseph College (today known as the University of St. Joseph). “I’ve had a private practice,” she says. “I’ve worked with CREC [Capitol Region Education Council]. I’ve worked at residential institutions, therapeutic group homes—just really using that framework of looking at people within the context of their community. “You never know how [your degree] is going to take you to where you need to be,” MárquezGreene continues. “It may not be the final destination. Teaching wasn’t my final destination, but that doesn’t mean the lessons were lost. As a matter of fact, the lessons were salient to many other parts of our lives and important for that. A lot of kids get stressed because they worked so hard to get that degree and then might find themselves with another passion. Well, 18 years old is a little young to know what you want to do. And it’s okay. Just get that degree, and it will open doors that you didn’t know.” As director of community advancement at CCSU, Márquez-Greene sees an opportunity to expand her reach even further. She takes the long view and appreciates that slow and steady wins the race. The Ana Grace Project is a piece of it. “A lot of these problems we are trying to address are larger systemic issues that don’t get solved even in one generation,” she says. “Think about your great leaders— your Marian Wright Edelman, your Martin Luther King Jr. We’re still fighting some of those battles. So, if you’re thinking you’re going to measure your success by how much work you got done or how much you see, I think we’re looking at it wrong. I think we’re putting a lot of pressure on ourselves. We need to show up and do the work.”

“ There are honors that you tuck in the secret pocket of your heart, but really even more, much more, the honor is the relationship that you are able to build with others.” “For many of our students that we bring onboard that day—there are about 400—it is the first time they’ve been on a university campus,” Márquez-Greene says of Finish the Race, which is held on the CCSU campus during normal years. Along with other activities, “athletes come out to greet them that day. We partner with [Fleet Feet] in West Hartford, which allows us to purchase sneakers at cost. At the end of the day, we say, ‘We want you to finish the race of your education.’ We give them new sneakers so they can finish the race. We want them to feel and know that they are welcome here and that we see them as scholars. Whether they come to a four-year university or go to a trade school, we see that they could be more than they understand right now.” Márquez-Greene’s passion for the well-being of her community may have found a larger stage since 2012, but she has a long history of service. At the University of Hartford, she recalls, residential life was a key element of her campus experience. “Being a resident assistant was big. I was in B Complex. At the time, it was the arts dorm. Just having the responsibility and privilege of working with students, developing programming, troubleshooting problems, listening, doing a lot of guidance—yes, residential life was a huge part of my years at the University.” Marquez-Greene received a Distinguished Alumna

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

F E AT U R E / 3 1

Over the years, Márquez-Greene has been recognized for doing the work. She received the 2004 Minority Fellowship Award from the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the 2004 Distinguished Professional Service Award and 2013 Service to Families Award from the Connecticut Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. In October, she was named one of People magazine’s Women Changing the World in 2019, joining the likes of California Senator Kamala Harris, actress Taraji P. Henson, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, environmentalist Greta Thunberg, the United States Women’s Soccer Team, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Oprah Winfrey, and actress Evan Rachel Wood. In addition, her story of courage and activism is included in Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton’s The Book of Gutsy Women (Simon and Schuster, 2019). After meeting Hillary on the campaign trail and Chelsea at a book signing, “they learned about our work,” Márquez-Greene says. “Chelsea said it was my writing about my daughter, my telling stories of her. As a mother, she really connected with that. … She came here to [CCSU] for the Ana Grace Project. Our students from New Britain public schools read her book She Persisted to her. Then she did a Q&A with me and signed some books for the community, which was really beautiful. “There are honors that you tuck in the secret pocket of your heart,” she continues, “but really even more, much more, the honor is the relationship that you are able to build with others.” As she continues to work to build strong communities, Márquez-Greene notes, “Because of what we’ve been through, we take things one day at a time, one breath at a time. We have counted very much on our faith to allow us to be there. Because when [we lost Ana Grace], we couldn’t see two days out. So, the fact that we’re still here doing these things more than eight years out is really a miracle—and a responsibility I don’t take lightly.” H

SUMMER 2021

SYN

F E AT U R E / 3 3

THESIS During college and beyond, Miles Aron ’13 combines scholarly passions with his love for music

Encapsulating Miles Aron’s professional career is no simple task. On the one hand, it’s barely longer than half a decade, yet, on the other, it’s already involved software engineering, ultrasound biologics, guitar instruction, and a few more disciplines thrown into the mix. It’s been a whirlwind stretch from the time Aron crossed the Commencement stage as a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Hartford in 2013. He was awarded one of the world’s highest educational honors—a Fulbright scholarship—that led him to Switzerland to study for a year at the University of Zurich. He then traveled to England for graduate study at the prestigious Hertford College of the University of Oxford, courtesy of UHart’s highly competitive John G. Martin Scholarship, where he earned his PhD in biomedical engineering.

SUMMER 2021

3 4 / F E AT U R E

ron grew up in Norwich, Connecticut, and attended UHart for several reasons: for one thing, the programs offered through the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA) were appealing to him; for another, the preeminence of its music instructors struck a passionate chord; finally, the vibrant jazz community in nearby Hartford. Music was just too good for him to ignore. “My mom, dad, and uncle went to UHart, so I guess it’s a family thing,” Aron says. Even his sister, who was not a UHart student, took guitar lessons with the founder and former chair of the guitar department at The Hartt School, Dick Provost. Aron took classical guitar lessons with Rich Goldstein, a senior artist teacher of jazz guitar at the University’s Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz. A musical family indeed. And as much as he enjoyed music on campus, Aron would drive into Hartford as often as he could to see jazz school musicians play at the historic Black-Eyed Sally’s restaurant. “But I was also good at math,” he interjects. “I met Bob Celmer (professor of mechanical engineering and acoustical engineering program director) and he showed me all the great facilities there for acoustics, which is the science of sound, the engineering side of music—something I also love!” Aron found

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

F E AT U R E / 3 5

the subject matter of acoustics fascinating and wanted to get involved, even if it meant missing a few nights at Black-Eyed Sally’s. During his four years at UHart, Aron interned for the U.S. Department of Energy at SLAC National Linear Accelerator in Stanford, California, where he developed a method of automated optical analysis for dark matter detector crystals. He also interned for PVI Systems in Niantic, Connecticut, where he implemented microphone arrays for acoustic beam forming. During his senior year, through the Connecticut Space Grant Consortium, he interned at NASA Ames Research Center in California, where he designed a low-frequency calibration system for wind tunnel standing wave modes. “Miles definitely was one of the brightest students I’ve had in my time here,” Celmer says. “He was laser focused on the research he wanted to do in grad school. We would constantly expose him to the latest research in the field and he ate it up like ice cream. The more he learned, the more involved he got.” Celmer recalls that Aron was very involved outside of the classroom and labs as well. “He held office in our chapter of the Acoustical Society of America and Tau Beta Pi. Part of his appeal comes from his musical background. He is comfortable presenting on stage so he is comfortable presenting himself. He’s a very engaging combination.” The European scholarly community found Aron just as engaging. His Fulbright research project in Switzerland focused on treating brain diseases and cancer with enhanced drug delivery methods using focused ultrasound and microbubbles. Research papers he wrote while at Oxford are still being published; overall, 10 of his scholarly papers appear in academic journals. Once back in the United States, Aron led the software engineering team for a company called Arcanium, which was started by a friend he had met at NASA. He also took a turn as senior full-stack developer for Archie MD, a physician-led company that develops stunning biomedical and surgical training animations and augmented-reality

experiences. In 2018, he co-founded a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that simplifies online guitar study. Named Subtonic, the company “was founded on the belief that learning music should be an interactive and creative experience, not just another set of online video lessons,” Aron explains. “Subtonic is about sharing the joy of musicianship using the best technology of 2021 and beyond.” The company is preparing to release Subtonic for Teachers, which will be free for all educators.

The more he learned, the more involved he got. “When I was a kid, I thought about going into the music profession in one way or another,” Aron recalls. “My dad’s a guitar professor, and when I told my parents that I wanted to be a music theory professor, they said, ‘Oh, maybe you should think about something else, because that’s really, really hard!’” Whether or not that conversation led directly to engineering and science as a professional core is unanswerable, but it hardly matters since music has been as much a part of his adult life as STEM subjects. What’s more, through Subtonic, he is able to combine music and technology. Currently, Aron lives with his brother in northeastern Connecticut. Both are entrepreneurs working on musicoriented businesses, though their separate enterprises are not competitive. Just where he’ll be a year from now is up for grabs, as is whether or not Subtonic will be joined by another entrepreneurial venture or two. Music is always in his head—but engineering and science are never far from his mind. “What companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink and Google’s Verily Life Sciences are doing makes me think that I might continue to explore those kinds of fields in some way,” says the 29-year-old scholar and entrepreneur. “But I have a lot of time to think about it.” H Miles Aron ’13 has built a strong UHart connection at Subtonic—Dan Florio ’12 (CETA), Dan Liparini ’14 (Hartt), and Sean Clapis ’09 (Hartt) all work there.

SUMMER 2021

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

MARCH

MADNESS

ESPORTS

COACH’S

LEGACY

HAWK NATION S U N DAY, FE B R UA RY 2 8 5:02 p.m. I Less than 26 hours after defeating Binghamton, 77–60, in the opening round of the America East Championships, the fourthseeded Hawks take down fifthseeded Albany, 83–77, in the quarterfinals. SAT U R DAY, M A R CH 6 4:01 p.m. I The Hawks tip off at No. 2 seed Vermont looking to knock off the America East preseason favorite. 5:42 p.m. I Sophomore D.J. Mitchell gives Hartford a lead it would not relinquish in the semifinals of the America East Championship, with a three-pointer at the 18:42 mark of the second half. 6:21 p.m. I For the second time in as many seasons, the Hawks secure their spot in the America East championship game after pulling off a semifinal upset, defeating Vermont by a score of 71–65. SAT U R DAY, M A R C H 13 11:00 a.m. I Hartford tips off against UMass Lowell as the Hawks host their first-ever America East Championship Game on ESPN2. 12:47 p.m. I The final horn sounds, and the Hawks begin to celebrate after winning the program’s first-ever America East Championship with a 64–50 victory over UMass Lowell. 1:06 p.m. I History continues to be made when head coach John Gallagher cuts down the net for the first time in Hartford’s 37 years as a Division I program.

MAGICAL MARCH A timeline of Men’s Basketball’s history-making three weeks as the Hawks won the America East championship and entered the national spotlight as first-time participants in March Madness.

MO NDAY, MAR CH 1 5 11:31 a.m. I Graduate student Traci Carter, senior Austin Williams, junior Hunter Marks, and head coach John Gallagher get some camera time with the crew of CBS Sports Network. T UE SDAY, MAR CH 1 6 3:00 p.m. I The Hawks enjoy team “field time” on Victory Field, the home of the Indianapolis Indians (Triple AAA of the Pittsburgh Pirates), which marks their first time out of the hotel (with the exception of team practices). W E DNE SDAY, MAR CH 1 7 7:23 a.m. I In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, head coach John Gallagher sports his green suit for his “Zoom” appearance on Fox 61’s Morning Show with Tim Lammers and Erika Arias. 8:42 a.m. I Hartford arrives at Lucas Oil Stadium, the home of the Indianapolis Colts and site of the Hawks’ first-ever NCAA Tournament game, for its fourth team practice since arriving in Indianapolis. 4:15 p.m. I The team heads to a parking garage on top of the Indiana Convention Center, to pose for a photo in front of the J.W. Marriott’s NCAA Tournament bracket, which went down in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest banner ever created.

5:06 p.m. I WHEELS UP! The Hawks board a chartered Boeing 737 and head to Indianapolis, the home of the entire 68-team NCAA Tournament. 7:16 p.m. I Greeted by a police escort consisting of three motorcycles, the Hawks touch down in Indianapolis and head to their home for the next week, the downtown J.W. Marriott. 8:05 p.m. I Members of the travel party gather in Hartford’s meeting room for their first team dinner in Indianapolis. 8:35 p.m. I Each member of the travel party takes the first of seven COVID-19 PCR tests before heading into quarantine for the next 21+ hours. S U N DAY, M A R C H 1 4 6:00 p.m. I With all negative results from the first COVID-19 PCR test received, the Hawks gather together in their meeting room for the first time since arriving in Indianapolis to watch the Selection Show on CBS. 6:24 p.m. I Hartford learns that it will meet regional top seed Baylor in its first-ever NCAA Tournament Game.

1:38 p.m. I Hartford’s final practice in preparation for its NCAA Tournament game against Baylor concludes inside the Indianapolis Convention Center. 7:15 p.m. I Head coach John Gallagher joins Wally Szczerbiak, Clark Kellogg, Seth Davis, and Greg Gumbel live, via Zoom, during truTV’s coverage of the NCAA Tournament’s First Four. F R I DAY, MAR CH 1 9 2:00 p.m. I After a police escort leads the bus from the J.W. Marriott to Lucas Oil Stadium, the Hawks make the journey through the tunnel to their team locker room. 3:02 p.m. I Head coach John Gallagher greets Hartford fans, who are allowed to cheer on the Hawks in person for the first time this season. 3:30 p.m. I Hartford officially makes its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance when the ball is tipped against eventual national champion Baylor. 3:35 p.m. I Sophomore Miroslav Stafl sinks a free throw for the Hawks’ firstever postseason points. 5:36 p.m. I With their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance officially in the books, the team shares a memorable moment from the court with the 300+ fans donning the scarlet and white, who made the trip to Indianapolis. SAT UR DAY, MAR CH 2 0 12:39 a.m. I The Hawks return to Connecticut, touching down at Bradley International Airport.

AT H L E T I C S / 37

SUMMER 2020

9:42 p.m. I Head coach John Gallagher makes his first of two national TV appearances, when he joins Adam Zucker, Wally Szczerbiak, Ryan Hollins, Gary Parrish, Chris Walker and Brent Stover on CBS Sports Network’s Bracket Breakdown.

T H UR SDAY, MAR CH 1 8

H AW K N AT I O N / I N S I D E

7:34 p.m. I The Hawks arrive at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in downtown Indianapolis for their first official practice as America East Champions.

6:15 p.m. I The Hawks enjoy a fantastic team meal in the hotel meeting room from St. Elmo Steak House, the oldest and one of the most well-known steak houses in Indianapolis.

3 8 / H AW K N AT I O N / I N S I D E

AT H L E T I C S

Screen Time Hartford Athletics Adds Esports to Varsity Sports Lineup

“ We’ve done this entire program virtually up to this point. A lot of our team members are best friends—and they haven’t even met one another in person yet.” E VAN HOLLIDAY ’ 1 7, Manager of Collegiate Admission and Retention, CETA; Director of Esports

Peter Bateman Jr. ’23

Offense or defense? That’s a common question posed to student-athletes— but not with the newest group of competitors on campus. Instead, a more relevant question might be “League of Legends or Super Smash Brothers Ultimate?” Welcome to Esports at the University of Hartford, where traditional information like heights and positions are not listed on the official roster, but gamertags and academic majors are. Last fall, the University of Hartford became the first school in the America East Conference to offer a varsity Esports program through its athletics department. With over 175 Esports programs currently competing in the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NAC), Esports is one of the fastest growing sports in the country. At UHart, the Esports program is coeducational and open to all students. In only its first full semester, a roster of more than 50 students with majors covering the full range of majors, from music management to biomedical engineering, has taken shape. It’s not only the actual competitors that are joining the Esports program; students are bringing their talents to help in other ways, including in the all-important areas of live and post production. These are critical areas in ensuring that the program has a streaming component that allows parents and others to view competitions on such

venues as Twitch and You Tube. By day, Evan Holliday ’17 is the manager of collegiate admission in the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture. Little did he know when he approached the Department of Athletics last fall to explore how he could become involved in the Esports program that he would soon become the program’s director. It is a second job that consumes his evenings—but Holliday would have it no other way. “We’ve done this entire program virtually up to this point,” he explains. There have been no in-person meetings and no in-person facility yet (a new Esports Arena will open within the Sports Center on campus later this year); it’s been an incredible effort to do this the way we have. A lot of our team members are best friends—and they haven’t even met one another in person yet.” The 51 competitors on the team formed 11 teams that competed in eight different games during the spring semester. While there was a Super Smash Brothers club that existed on campus previously, there was no existing organizational structure in place for a competitive Esports program. Everything is being built from the ground up, but the potential is limitless. “Esports is a tremendous equalizer,” Holliday explains, emphasizing that many of the top Esports programs are colleges and universities without big name recognition and or financial resources. “Esports is allowing

Women’s golfer Maria Loza ’21 became the first in program history to repeat as individual conference champion.

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

S P ORTS TICKER : Track and field soars to highest regional rankings in program history.

H AW K N AT I O N / I N S I D E

universities at all resource levels to build programs that can compete at the highest level of the game. In one or two years, we want to be in a position where, in some or all of our games, we have created enough pedigree at the regional or even national level that we can draw the kind of talent that is going to other schools right now.” Esports has been on a steady climb since 2014, Holliday explains. The pandemic has been an accelerant forcing a lot of schools who were on the fence about adding Esports to move forward. Still, the United States lags many parts of the world. “South Korea has a full-blown Esports scene with a complete league system across multiple games,” Holliday adds. With Connecticut one of the first states to introduce Esports at the high school level, the University of Hartford is in a good position— geographically and otherwise—to see its program take off. “We are building a program, which is about more than just saying we have teams and we win games,” Holliday emphasizes. “It is a culture. It is a positive atmosphere. It is an area where you can have 50 people be on the same page. I have been building this rapport with the students— and it is working. They are really seeing that we are building something and there is the opportunity for massive success.”

Hits allowed bv Nicholas Dombkowski ’21 in tossing a complete-game no-hitter at Albany on May 8, the baseball program’s first in nine years.

/ Men’s golf takes home three team titles during spring.

AT H L E T I C S

/ 39

IN MEMORIAM

Remembering Jack Phelan (1954–2020) The Hartford Hawks family mourns the loss of former head men’s basketball coach Jack Phelan, who died last summer at the age of 66. A native of West Hartford who starred at Northwest Catholic High School before attending St. Francis (Pa.) University, Phelan became the sixth head coach in program history in 1981. Inducted into the University of Hartford’s Alumni Athletics Hall of Fame as a Pioneer in 2009, Phelan spent 11 seasons at the helm of the Hawks, piloting the program in its transition from Division II to Division I for the 1984–85 season. He was one of four coaches in program history to amass 100 career victories. Phelan was in his 17th year as the director of athletics at Farmington (Conn.) High School at the time of his death.

UHart to Begin Process of Transitioning Athletics Model After more than a year of analysis, the University of Hartford Board of Regents voted on May 6 to begin the multi-year process of transitioning the University’s intercollegiate athletics programs from Division I to Division III. The University will officially file its intent to move to Division III with the NCAA in January 2022. If approved, the University will work with the NCAA on the reclassification process, in preparation for active membership no later than September 1, 2025. The Board determined that Division III’s approach to intercollegiate athletics better aligns with the University’s mission and goals of creating exceptional academic, co-curricular, and wellness experiences for all students. hartford.edu/athletics-update

/ Women’s lacrosse junior Jessica Harrison tallies six goals in game at Binghamton.

SUMMER 2020

40 / MIXED MEDIA / BOOKS,

MOVIES,

AND

MUSIC

JUST RELEASED

LISTEN UP

Professor of History Robert Churchill (Hillyer) examines the role geography and violence play in the narrative of the Underground Railroad in his latest book, The Underground Railroad and the Geography of Violence in Antebellum America. Churchill is a noted historian of American political violence.

Fresh off a Screen Actors Guild nomination for his role in The Irishman, actor and stuntman Jim Ford ’04 (Hartt) has released a book, My Take on All Fifty States. The memoir features highlights and insights into his journey so far. Included are mentions of his fond memories of the University, including the year he spent as Howie the Hawk.

Sara Mellas ’14 (Hartt) published The Easy Baked Donut Cookbook, taking readers on the path to mouthwatering and mess-free donuts through tried-andtrue tricks and tasty recipes for beautifully baked donuts, donut holes, mini donuts, and more. The first Friday each June is National Donut Day.

Professor of English and Modern Languages Benjamin Grossberg (A&S) has released two new books during the pandemic. He says both are the result of many years of work and it is a coincidence that they are being published at the same time. His first book, The Poetry of Capital, an anthology of poems from 44 authors that he coedited, addresses the contemporary American relationship with money. His second book, My Husband Would, is a poetry piece that tackles the idea of marriage and family in the context of middle age. Along with writing two new books, Grossberg has been recently named West Hartford’s Poet Laureate, awarded to an individual who gives back to the community of West Hartford by hosting poetry workshops and readings.

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

Greg Newbold ’09 (HAS) released If Monet Painted a Monster, the third book in a popular kid’s arts series exploring how 16 famous artists might have painted a monster. The volume explores the styles of famous artists, giving readers permission to create art in whatever style they choose.

Share your newly released book, album, or film with the UHart community. Email editor@hartford.edu.

Noted singer-songwriter, musician, and former Blue Oyster Cult bass player Joe Bouchard M ’95 (Hartt) has released his sixth solo album Strange Legends. Since his Blue Oyster Cult days, Bouchard graduated from Ithaca College, earned a master’s in musical composition from The Hartt School, taught music, and worked at a music publisher. He has released three albums with his current group Blue Coupe in addition to 20 albums with Blue Oyster Cult and other groups. Singer-songwriter Debbie Chou ’04 (Hartt) recently released a new album, The End of Our Time. Chou had released her debut album, Lovebug, in 2012, followed by a single in 2013, “Little Prince,” both of which reflected her piano and synth-based aesthetic borrowed from post-punk, indie, classical, and electronic music.

WORDS OF WISDOM / EXPERT

ADVICE

/ 41

The Grateful You Tips for gratitude in your career and life from alumnus Scott T. MacGregor

Scott T. MacGregor ’91, is the founder and CEO of SomethingNew LLC, a five-time recipient of the American Business Award for Innovation. SomethingNew provides a unique approach to talent through an innovative approach to recruiting and talent advisory services. Gratitude will change your life. The belief in the power of gratitude has led to two books, Standing O! and Standing O! Encore, which are anthologies of life lessons learned from prominent CEOs, Olympians, New York Times bestsellers, pro athletes, and military leaders. The third book in the series, Standing O! Salute, highlighting authors from the military, was released in fall 2020. (All proceeds for the books go to charity.)

“ Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” —American writer WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD

Gratitude is a mindset. It’s literally how you see the glass. Is it half full or half empty? Mindset can be set through being intentional in the way that we process life’s up and downs. It is the same in business. Be grateful for adversity. Much of the good in our lives comes from the challenges we face and overcome. It is critically important to look for the lessons and opportunities for growth that we benefit from because of life’s stumbling blocks. Gratitude does not have to be grandiose. Having gratitude for the big things, a loving and supportive spouse, or a fulfilling career is easy. Looking for the micro-moments of gratitude can take more practice. Being present and noticing the smell of fresh-cut grass or the sound of a crackling fire is a quick way to get us to a state of gratitude. We aim to be a company that is the first ring in the ripple of being grateful, sharing it with others and being a model of what a company can do to be grateful and give back regardless of size. Gratitude acknowledged can change people’s lives. As a leader, expressing gratitude with your team strengthens the relationship you have personally and professionally. Simple things like sending handwritten notes lets people know they are worth the extra time and effort it takes to do so. Don’t let a day go by without telling someone “thank you” or “I appreciate you.” A grateful life is a happy life.

SUMMER 2021

/CLASS

NOTES

WEDDINGS

BIRTHS

EVENTS

ALUMNI NOTES Suzie Hunter ’14 and Alex Robertson ’20 prepare to host UHart’s Day of Giving Kickoff Party live this past March 10. PHOTO COURTESY OF SUZIE HUNTER AND ALEX ROBERTSON

ALUMNI NOTES / NEWS

D EA R A LUMNI CO MMU N I T Y,

It is not surprising to me that the University of Hartford alumni I have met over the past year have so many incredible stories to tell. What is remarkable is that each of these stories, though unique, contains shared experiences and values that are reflected by our very special alumni community. From professional accomplishments to love stories and social justice to service work, our alumni strive for excellence, live with purpose, and are making the world a better place. I never tire of hearing the ways the people and relationships established at the University of Hartford have played a pivotal role in the self-discovery, growth, and boundary-pushing experiences of our alumni. These sentiments ring true for graduates from the early 50s to our students completing their degrees this spring. Over the decades, our University has offered students more than just the opportunities for intellectual growth, but also a strong sense of community filled with Hawk pride. These stories, past and present, have been the inspiration for the creative, innovative work you see reflected in our alumni engagement efforts. It is truly an honor to use the stories and experiences of our alumni to buoy our momentum during difficult times and to encourage our current students to fly high. As you flip through H magazine, another collection of inspiring stories from our community, revel in the connection you have to everyone in our vast network, and I invite you to reach out to share your story. Caitlin Trinh Senior Director of Alumni Engagement “The most important things in life are the connections you make with others.” —Tom Ford FOLLOW THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION: facebook.com/UHartfordAlumni Instagram.com/UHartAlumni twitter.com/UHartfordAlumni

DE GR E E K E Y A Associate Degree AD Artist Diploma C Sixth-Year Certificate D Doctorate GPD Graduate Professional Diploma M Master’s Degree No letter designation before a year indicates a bachelor’s degree (or last year attended). P indicates the parent of a student or alumna/us. indicates photo.

FROM

ALUMS

/ 43

Contribute a Note! The University of Hartford alumni network is vast, with a diverse community of over 88,000 strong throughout the U.S. and around the globe. UHart alumni are making their marks everywhere—in the arts, in business, in STEM, in government, and more—and have incredible stories to tell. You were once students, and now you’re alumni for life. Keep those bonds strong and stay connected. Class notes are posted throughout the year online. A selection of notes submitted during the 2020 calendar year are included in this issue. M AI L : Class Notes Editor, Development and Alumni Affairs,

200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06117

ONL I N E : hartford.edu/submit-note

1956

1972

Gallery 53’s Annual Fall Art Show in Meriden, Conn. He has traveled nationally and abroad as an artist, teacher, lecturer, and juror. He is well known in Connecticut and has been honored by many arts organizations, including Who’s Who in the East, USA. Massimino currently conducts critique classes and workshops in creative design, drawing, painting, and advanced studies of the past masters.

appointed lead chaplain of the Kane County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois. Tracy has had an extensive and fulfilling career as a member of the clergy and has also been a longtime supporter of the University of Hartford. [13]

John Massimino (HAS) recently judged

1965

Marilyn Kraj Sanford (A&S) moved to

Palm Bay, Florida, a few of years ago with her husband. She maintains her tax practice and serves on the board of their Fairway Crossings HOA as treasurer. She also volunteers for the Military Officers Association of America.

1970

Marc Sommer (A&S) was inducted into the Animal Chiropractic Hall of Fame in October 2019. He completed his specialty training in 1994 and has been treating animals ever since. He co-authored the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association’s code of ethics and was a previous member of its board of directors.

1971

John Reber (A&S) retired after 22

years with the National Park Service. He worked in the physical sciences program in the Intermountain Regional Office in Colorado.

Reverend Denise Tracy (A&S) was

1973

Last Nov. 26—Thanksgiving Day— marked the 40th anniversary of Keith Brown (A&S) as the host of WWUH’s show Gay Spirit Radio, one of the oldest gay radio shows in the country. Each week since 1980, Brown has connected Hartford’s LBGTQ+ community through music, news, and interviews, in a show seen as the area’s “original queer social media” and “bulletin board.” “The motto of the Gay Spirit Radio show is ‘The truth about our lives for a change.’ That means that I continue to broadcast information about the LGBTQ+ minority, the sexual minorities in the U.S., to educate the populace,” says Brown. The show airs on WWUH (91.3 FM) each Thursday at 8:30 p.m. and on Facebook each Friday at noon.

Seeking 1974 Newspapers

Have you saved any old UHart student newspapers from the 1970s? UHart currently does not have the following editions of ACME Newsservice in its newspaper collection: Vol 1. No. 26, April 17, 1974; and Vol 1. No. 27, April 24, 1974. If anyone has these issues and is willing to donate them, please contact archives@hartford.edu.

SUMMER 2021

44 / ALUMNI NOTES / NEWS

FROM

1977

Dr. Barbara Bartlik (A&S) was rated

a “Top Doctor” for 2020 by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. In 2019, she was selected among New York magazine’s Best Doctors and named a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Bartlik is currently in private practice in Manhattan.

1978

Mark Ricciardelli (M Barney), founder and manager of PlumBank Advisors, LLC, serves as co-chair of the Old Saybrook Cares Committee, a program launched this summer to help town residents struggling through the pandemic. The program offers grants to be used toward basic needs such as food, housing, clothing, utilities, child care, or transportation costs.

1980

Marquis Who’s Who has presented Patrick Vaccariello (Hartt) with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. Vaccariello is a recognized musical director and conductor who has worked both internationally and nationally, including Broadway productions such as Cabaret, Annie, Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway, and West Side Story. He will serve as musical director of The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman, opening on Broadway in the spring of 2021.

1981

Annette Lemieux (HAS) is among

notable women artists—including Carrie Mae Weems, Yoko Ono, Helen Frankenthaler, and the Guerrilla Girls—in New Britain Museum of Art’s Some Day is Now: Women, Art and Social Change—an extensive exhibit honoring the centennial of women’s suffrage. Lemieux’s work Spin subverts the imagery of the American flag with photos of Scout from the film To Kill a Mockingbird. [1]

1982

Peter Baldwin (Hartt) was featured on Connecticut’s Fox 61 News following his recovery from COVID-19 last summer.

ALUMS

Known locally as the “singing carpenter,” and often the life of the party, he greeted his family and friends with a rendition of “The Impossible Dream” upon his discharge. [14]

1984

Television pioneer Chuck Pagano (CETA, M’07 A&S) was featured in

Legends Behind the Lens, a series of industry profiles by SportsVideo.org. The feature details his long and industry-defining career as an innovator at ESPN. Dominic Talotta (Hartt) was honored as the 2020–21 Teacher of the Year by Plainville Community Schools in Connecticut. Talotta has been an educator for 36 years, mainly serving as the band director for Plainville High School. He is described as having the “perfect balance of attributes that make a teacher truly outstanding. He is a respected expert in his craft and a highly skilled musician and director.”

1985

Alejandro Tkaczevski (Hartt) and Victoria Gobetz (HAS) are happily

married and living the country life in Greenfield, N.H. The two married in 2017 after meeting at UHart. Alejandro teaches piano privately and writes music. [6]

1987

Nigel Corner (Barney) is among four

new deputy lieutenants for North Yorkshire, England, recently appointed by the Lord-Lieutenant Johanna Ropner, with Her Majesty the Queen’s agreement. Corner is also the managing director of his family’s business that is involved in the manufacturing, retail, and servicing sectors in North East England.

1988

The Boston Globe named Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and former UHart baseball All-American Jeff Bagwell (Barney) in “The Best Cape League Players Who Made It to the Majors, Position-By-Position.” The Cape Cod League is considered to be the best amateur league in the country. Bagwell played for Chatham in 1987–88.

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

Monica Corton (Hartt), known in the entertainment industry as a music activist and music internet theorist, is founder and CEO of Go to Eleven Entertainment/Go to Eleven Entertainment Music Royalty Fund—a women-led full-service music company focused on servicing female songwriters, artists, and producers through its publishing, artist services, and production divisions. Corton is also president of Monica Corton Consulting, which works in publishing, copyright, licensing, royalties, and business strategies. In a recent interview on celebrityaccess.com, Corton talks about the music industry and the pandemic, technology and the future of music, and more.

David C. Robinson (M’88 Barney, P’23) of West Hartford, Conn., has been

elected to chair of the board of directors at the MetroHartford Alliance. Robinson is the executive vice president and general counsel at The Hartford—a role he assumed in June 2015—where he oversees the law department, government affairs, and compliance.

1989

Jolie Rocke (Hartt) has been accepted onto the 2020–22 Texas Touring Roster by the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA). She progressed through a rigorous review by the TCA, an organization that provides grants to help bring in talent so that all Texans can enjoy performances and presentations in their own community. Rocke serves as chair of the Alumni of Color Task Force for UHart’s Alumni Board of Directors.

1990

Lisa Fasulo (A&S) was featured in Zip06.

com’s “Busy Times” for her efforts to keep the community safe and healthy during the COVID-19 crisis. Fasulo is director of health for the town of Essex, Conn. Boston Architectural College (BAC) named Sydney Leo (M Barney) vice

B E I N TH E S POTLIG HT

UHart’s alumni website highlights alumni who are impacting the world in meaningful and interesting ways. Have a story to tell? Access spotlights at hartford.edu/alumni-spotlights.

ALUMNI NOTES / NEWS

president of finance and administration. She brings 30 years of experience serving commercial and nonprofit organizations, and historically black colleges and universities. Prior to BAC, Leo was the national education advisory leader at BDO USA, LLP.

1991

Todd Zavorskas (A&S) is founder of Zombie Leader, an organization spreading good deeds for national and local charities “one bite at a time.” A selfproclaimed “geek,” and an avid collector and Comic Con vendor, Zavorskas has worked with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for the past 25 years, helping them raise nearly $212,000 through events. In 2016, he was a candidate for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Connecticut-WestchesterHudson Valley Chapter Man of the Year. [10]

1993

Datuk Seri Kassim Saripuddin (M Barney) is the new Malaysian

Aviation Commission executive chairman. He is regarded as a “consummate professional civil servant who has served the government for nearly four decades, most recently as secretary-general in the Federal Territories Ministry.” Saripuddin was also previously an adviser to the Malaysian Embassy in Tokyo, and education and training attaché for the Malaysian High Commission in London.

1994

Jones Soda Co. appointed Joseph

Jankowski (Barney, M’98 Barney) of

Loveland, Ohio, as head of U.S. sales. He brings 18 years of experience in direct store delivery and alternate delivery methods. Most recently, he served as the vice president of retail sales for Zenabis Global’s USA division.

1995

Joe Bouchard (Hartt), see recently

released album, p. 40.

David Cordani (Barney), CEO of Cigna Corporation, was named number seven in the Hartford Business Journal’s 2020 Power 25 Healthcare list, which

identifies leaders who are significantly impacting the industry and public health. Cordani oversees 4,700 employees in the Bloomfield, Conn.-based company and is recognized as a national leader in healthcare reform, having met face to face with President Barack Obama to discuss public health insurance exchanges. Amazon Prime has acquired the rights to the award-winning musical movie Wholly Broken, created by and starring Tom Humbert (Hartt). Wholly Broken is the story of an alcoholic minister and his journey through life. The film won the Best Feature Film USA 2017 Award at the International Film Festival Manhattan. Watch the film on Amazon Prime Video. Daniel Solomon (A&S) was named vice president and chief Olympia officer of American Media, Inc. (AMI), a leading publisher of celebrity and active lifestyle media. Solomon has vast experience from the fitness industry as a producer, commentator, editor, writer, and publisher, and most recently was co-executive producer of the motion picture Bigger. At AMI, he will oversee the Olympia brand, which includes the Mr. Olympia Contest and Joe Weider’s Olympia Fitness & Performance Weekend.

1996

Salem Medical Center has added

Michael McIntosh (A&S, M’98 A&S) as

its new infection preventionist where he will be responsible for ensuring compliance with state, federal, and Joint Commission standards relating to infection control and quality core measures. Dr. McIntosh will assist with staff training on infection prevention and core measures.

1997

Arlene Arnold (Hartt, M’99 Hartt) was recently profiled on the UConn Today website. A love of music led her to pursue both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Hartt School, followed by degrees from UConn and Texas A&M University to pursue her other interests in ornithology and conservation. She has been employed by the U.S. Navy since 2008 and is currently in Naples, Italy as the conservation and planning

FROM

ALUMS

/ 45

SAVE THE DATE

Hawktober 2021

October 15–17, 2021 Reconnect with friends, new and old, at UHart’s largest reunion of the year! Once a Hawk, always a Hawk! More info coming soon. Stay tuned.

coordinator for the Europe, Africa, Central region, helping to ensure the Navy helps protect natural and cultural resources on host nations’ lands. [8] The West Hartford (Conn.) Town Council voted to appoint nine residents to the West Hartford Commission on the Arts. Among them are a pair of UHart alumni: local singer, performer, songwriter, and educator LaTanya Farrell (ENHP); and singer and songwriter Javier Colon ’00 (Hartt), winner of season one of NBC’s The Voice.

1998

Lynn Valentine (A’97 Hillyer, A&S) was

featured in theday.com’s “Where Are They Now?” The former UHart women’s golf standout, and the 2008 Connecticut Women’s Open champion, is now the LPGA teaching professional at Bear Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., where she has worked the past 22 years. Sean Tabb (ENHP) and his brother, Colin, were featured in journalinquirer. com, detailing the brothers’ four-decade basketball journey throughout New England as players and coaches. Sean was a member of the UHart men’s basketball team from 1995–98 and is currently the head coach at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.

1999

Nicole Hughey (M Barney) was recently named vice president of diversity & inclusion at SiriusXM + Pandora. She will be responsible for creating and augmenting the company’s policies and practices as it relates to diversity and inclusion, to “cultivate an organization with individuals of diverse backgrounds

U PDATE YOU R I N FO at hartford.edu/alumni-update to stay connected with the UHart network.

SUMMER 2021

46 / ALUMNI NOTES / NEWS

SNAPSHOTS

FROM

ALUMS

3 6

1 Annette Lemieux (HAS) 2 Alex Perry (A’08 Hillyer, ENHP) and Jasmaine Seaberry (A’09 Hillyer, A&S, M’12 A&S) 3 Davi Paulo (Hartt) 4 Brian Stancavage (CETA, M’11 CETA) 5 Kalena Bovell (Hartt) 6 Alejandro Tkaczevski (Hartt) and Victoria Gobetz (HAS) 7 Jackson Olson (Barney) 8 Arlene Arnold (Hartt, M’99 Hartt) 9 Lauren Kennedy (HAS) 10 Todd Zavorskas (A&S) 11 Sandra Doreleijers (A&S) 12 Nina Vázquez (A&S) 13 Reverend Denise Tracy (A&S) 14 Peter Baldwin (Hartt)

11 13

14 12

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

ALUMNI NOTES / NEWS

FROM

ALUMS

/ 47

of all levels, and where all of our people are included and have the opportunity to grow and succeed.” Previously, she held similar positions with Mass General Brigham and Travelers Companies.

2000

Javier Colon (Hartt), see LaTanya Farrell ’97 Sandra Doreleijers (A&S) was a guest

E R ICA SCH U LTZ ’ 99 Growing up in Teaneck, N.J., Erica Schultz ’99 toyed with the idea of going into theoretical cosmology, physical therapy, and several other diverse fields. “But I wrote and drew and knew I wanted to do something creative when I grew up,” she recalls, and always enjoyed visual storytelling, whether through television, comic books, or movies. The University of Hartford was an important stop on her journey. “Creating is all about drawing from past experiences, and UHart was a very formative time of my life,” Schultz says. “So while I wasn’t a creative writing major (she studied English literature with a minor in secondary education), the observations and reality of living on campus gave me material to draw on later in life.” Schultz is perhaps best known for writing the 2018 Daredevil Annual published by Marvel, as well as multiple issues for Dynamite Entertainment, a top publisher in the field. She has also inked and colored for Batman and the First X-Men, and won the Best Comic Book award at the 2012 Burbank International Film Festival. When she first began working in the comic book world, her friends and relatives said the notion sounded just about right for the inimitable Schultz, who always leaned toward outsized thinking and broad-stroke creativity. Today, in addition to her graphic novel work, she is also on the faculty of the Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover, N.J., and works as a writer for hire through her own company, Fenix Works. “As an editor and teacher, it is my job to help someone with a million-dollar idea distill that idea down to its base components,” Schultz explains. “Once we see what the idea is made of, then we can work to find a successful execution. Ideas are plentiful; executions are much more difficult.” That’s how Erica Schultz approaches all of her own work as well—taking grand ideas and using her imagination and skills to sharply focus them into concise visual stories.

on the podcast Beautiful Game. A former standout and academic All-American on the Hartford women’s soccer team, she is PSV Eindhoven’s general manager and head of women’s football. Doreleijers has transformed PSV from a mid-table team into a powerhouse. [11]

2002

Lauren Kennedy (HAS), a design and

communications lead for the Boston Public Library’s Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center, was co-curator for the Center’s startingly relevant new online exhibition, Bending Lines: Maps and Data from Distortion to Deception. The exhibit challenges viewers to look deeper into the persuasive techniques used in cartography and educates on the reasons that people use maps for persuasion. [9] In 2019, Matt Margolis (CETA) launched an editorial cartoon with illustrator John Cox. In June 2020, they published their first, a Dr. Seuss parody about the coronavirus pandemic called “Oh, the Places You Can’t Go.” Now in syndication with Townhall Media, their cartoons can be viewed at MargolisAndCox.com.

2004

Janytra Carlisle Brooks (A&S) has been

promoted to chief human resources officer at Brookline Bancorp, Inc. She will oversee the development and execution of the human resources operations that supports the company and their subsidiaries. Brooks brings over 15 years of human resources experience to the position, having worked in multiple industries including health care, technology, and gaming. Debbie Chou (Hartt), see recently released album, p. 40. Worcestermag.com profiled actor and stuntman Jim Ford (Hartt) of West

University of Hartford Alumni Book Club

Are you a book lover who would like to participate in a book club with other alumni? Do you have ideas or recommendations for books or genres? We want to hear from you! To share your thoughts or learn more, e-mail the alumni engagement team at alumni@hartford.edu.

Boylston, Mass. The article focused on his role as a member of the stunt ensemble that performed in the movie The Irishman. The team’s work was nominated for a SAG Award. It was Ford’s first nomination after 200 credits as an actor and stuntman. See recently published book, p. 40. Nanette Pink (ENHP) was a recipient of the 2020 UConn Health Nightingale Nursing Award. Pink is an assistant nurse manager in the orthopedics/ surgery Unit at UConn Health.

2006

Milmaglyn Morales (ENHP) was recently appointed to the National Association of the Deaf’s Board of Directors as a Region I representative. Morales, a native of Ponce, Puerto Rico, is a certified K–12 educator, a deaf interpreter for the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and a preschool teacher at the American School for the Deaf. She serves as law chair on the Connecticut Association of the Deaf board, and chair of the Interpreters Qualifications Subcomittee of the CAD Legislative Committee. Svigals + Partners, a full-service architectural firm located in New Haven, Conn., announced the elevation of Brian Stancavage (CETA, M’11 CETA) to the position of associate. His portfolio boasts

SUMMER 2021

48 / ALUMNI NOTES / NEWS

FROM

ALUMS

An Unlikely Pair of Hawks Soar Together In each issue, H looks at bonds and friendships formed at UHart that continue strong today.

design contributions to six K–12 schools and the recently completed Yale Child Study Center. [4]

2007

Shanta Lee Gander (Barney) reCharles Cornelius ’77 (A&S) and Marvin Kelly ’79 (Barney) were rivals during their UHart days, constantly competing for leadership positions and playing time in sports. Fast forward many years to when Kelly went on a job interview at an insurance company in Pennsylvania; Cornelius worked there and was part of the interview process. They soon became good friends and helped each other pave successful careers as the first Black men in every position along the way. They remain friends to this day. However, the pair really did not hit it off at first. Kelly considered himself to be a high-profile type of first-year student who played basketball and football. He first met Cornelius when walking across campus with his roommate. Cornelius invited them to join the Black Student Union, and from that point on, the two would have a competitive friendship during their years at UHart. Kelly recalls being a new student in the gym and being called to play the juniors and seniors in basketball. He recalls a fight that broke out on the basketball court that would lead to a brotherly sort of relationship with Cornelius—the two constantly gave one another a hard time but considered themselves bonded. Except for sports, they didn’t hang in the same circle. In the ensuing years, Kelly has been the first person of color in every position he’s been in. When he landed a job as the first black underwriter for an insurance company in Pittsburgh, the last person he expected to see was his old friend from UHart. After interviewing with various people, Kelly reached his final interview of the day—and it was with Cornelius. Once left alone in the interview, the two bonded over their pasts and the strides they have taken to get to where they are today. The pair soon realized that they were minorities in their respective positions, and they valued discussing their unique perspectives in a professional setting. However, there was no letting basketball go completely. They would go to a nearby club together and play. This time though, they were on the same team. Both would agree that their basketball skills have been trumped by their career achievements. Cornelius went on to become president and CEO of INROADS, the nation’s largest nonprofit source of paid internships for diverse, high-performing undergraduate students. He also was president and CEO of Atlanta Life Financial Group, a 100-yearold, African American-owned-andoperated provider of life insurance, annuities, group reinsurance, and asset management. His career also included executive roles in insurance with the Chubb Group and Allstate. Kelly has been the executive director of Texas Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association since 1992. In this role, he is the chief administrator for an insurance insolvency mechanism that has primary responsibility for processing claims of insolvent insurance companies for all member companies in the state of Texas.

Once left alone in the interview, the two bonded over their pasts and the strides they have taken to get to where they are today.

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

ceived the Arthur Williams Award for Meritorious Service to the Arts at the 2020 Vermont Art Awards. Gander is the director of publicity and outreach at Mount Island—a magazine dedicated to rural LGBTQ+ and POC voices. She is also a member of the Vermont Humanities Council Speakers Bureau and has served on the Brattleboro Select Board and as president of the Arts Council of Windham County.

2008

Patrick Dunn (Hartt) of Port Jervis, N.Y. joined the national touring production of Les Miserables. He is playing the lead, Jean Valjean, in the musical.

2009

A senior specialist for corporate social responsibility and internal engagement at Konica Minolta, Allison Kern (A&S) was named to the 2020 Difference Makers list by ENX Magazine. The annual list honors “individuals from throughout the imaging technology universe who have left an indelible impression by serving their clients, companies, and business partners while bringing calm to calamity and resolution to disarray.”

2010

Matt Cooke (A&S) was recently named

vice president, head of communications for US Functions at Santander US. In this new role, Cooke is responsible for developing and implementing strategies that help build the Santander brand to

UHart to Hartford

Abe Hefter from the School of Communication catches up with alumni to talk about their experiences at UHart and how it led them to where they are now. Hear their stories at hartford.edu/alumnipodcast.

ALUMNI NOTES / NEWS

current and potential employees, enhance employee engagement, and drive understanding of the overall business, reputation, and culture transformation. Cooke has been with Santander for four years, previously holding communications roles at Prudential Financial and The Hartford.

2011

Derek Bryant (A&S) of San Jose, Calif.,

was the keynote speaker at a Black History Celebration held in February 2020 at Peace United Methodist Church in Milpitas, Calif. He is the recreation coordinator for the City of Santa Clara. Jonas Hampton (CETA) was featured in The Mercury (Exton, Penn.) following his eighth-place finish (among 175 runners) at the 2020 Olympic marathon trials in Los Angeles. It was a vast improvement for the former UHart student-athlete, who finished 48th at the 2016 Trials. Corey Paine’s (HAS) artwork was featured as part of a Community Spotlight in the Hartford Courant. The article highlights The Borden, a multi-use facility in Wethersfield, Conn., where Paine has a mural in its sports simulation room. Alex Perry (A’08 Hillyer, ENHP) and Jasmaine Seaberry (A’09 Hillyer, A&S, M’12 A&S) were featured in a Q&A that

that was published in The Atlantic. The article, titled “What are RAs Social Lives Like?” talked about their time together on campus as resident assistants and the friendship they developed. [2]

2012

Nancy Meyer (University Studies) was

named president of the Miami Herald. In this role, she will lead the business side of the Herald and el Nuevo Herold, including advertising, finance, and operations. Meyer brings almost two decades of experience in local news to the position. She is an active member of her community, serving as a member of The Alliance of Greater Fort Lauderdale Board of Directors, Broward Business Council on Homelessness, Broward Workshop, Nova Southeastern University Ambassador’s Board, Orlando Economic Development Commission’s Governors’ Council, and Central Florida–Project Opioid.

2013

After graduating, Davi Paulo (Hartt) was in search of a new experience and decided to move to Beijing, China, and create the drag persona Miss Lola du Jour. Paulo quickly rose to become one of the top drag performers in the city—Miss Lola not only entertains, but also teaches, enlightens, and spreads awareness to help build up and enrich the surrounding community. [3]

2014

Kalena Bovell (M Hartt, GPD’15 Hartt)

received the 2020 Distinguished Alumni Award for the College of Performing Arts at Chapman University. Bovell has made a name for herself as an accomplished conductor—she is currently the assistant conductor for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and the conductor of the Memphis Youth Symphony. [5] Lauren Curley (Hartt) received the Private/Professional Dance Educator of the Year Award from the Utah Dance Education Organization. The award is given to individuals who show outstanding leadership, research, scholarship, and service in their sector. Curley is a faculty mentor at a creative arts academy and teaches master classes at studios and university programs throughout the country. Sara Mellas (Hartt), see recently published book, p. 40. Abdulaziz AlOthman (CETA), a 2020 Anchor Award recipient, has been appointed as the founding curator of the World Economic Forum’s Kuwait Hub as part of the Global Shapers Community—a networking group of young professionals looking to create a positive change in the world.

2015

Former UHart women’s volleyball player

Kathryn Gawrych (Barney, M’16 Barney)

has opened her own business, Real Life Ninja Academy, in Freeport, N.Y. The franchise is modeled after the popular NBC sports entertainment show. Gawrych and her new business were featured in libn.com.

2016

Repertory Dance Theatre, the nation’s premiere modern dance company,

FROM

ALUMS

/ 49

welcomed Kareem Lewis (Hartt) to its troupe for its 55th season. The Boston native began his formal dance training at the Boston Arts Academy. After graduating from there, he continued his training at the Brookline Ballet School before attending UHart.

2018

Brittany Ferrante (ENHP), an assistant golf pro at Village Club Sands Point in New York, completed a 200-hole marathon and raised over $52,000 for Babes Against Cancer—part of the American Cancer Society—which funds breast and prostate cancer research. Ferrante completed the 200-hole marathon in 12 hours and was able to surpass the club’s previous amount of donations from its annual golf tournament that supports breast cancer research—canceled this past year due to COVID-19—by over $20,000. Kristina J. Martineau (ENHP) has been appointed the superintendent of schools by the Westbrook (Conn.) Board of Education. Martineau has served Region 4 Public Schools in Chester, Deep River, and Essex since 2008—serving as an associate principal from 2008–10, interim principal from 2010–11, principal from 2011–2015, and assistant superintendent since 2015.

2019

Nina Vázquez (A&S), a graduate student at the University of Connecticut’s El Instituto of Latinx, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies, was awarded a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship for 2020 to conduct research in Puerto Rico. The research focuses on how Puerto Ricans racially identified prior to U.S. occupation and the passing of the Jones Act in 1920. [12]

2020

Jackson Olson (Barney), an outstanding performer on the field and in the classroom for the UHart baseball team, was featured in the New Milford Spectrum ahead of the June MLB player draft. He was the team’s starting shortstop and compiled a 3.82 GPA in the Barney School of Business. [7]

SUMMER 2021

50 / ALUMNI NOTES / IN

MEMORIAM

We Remember... 1940s Miriam Miller Ratner A’42 (Barney) Atlanta, Ga., 12.25.2020 Thea Korder Climo A’44 (Barney) Santa Barbara, Calif., 7.7.2020 Stephanie Derlycia Johnson A’44 (Hillyer) Canton, Conn., 8.13.2020 Lucy Tarascio Rossi A’47 (Barney) Wethersfield, Conn., 12.31.2020 Lois Reeve Wadsworth A’47, P’94 (HCW) Farmington, Conn., 5.10.2020 Dr. Millard S. Thomson ’48, M’49 (Hartt) Plymouth, N.H., 6.11.2020 George J. Naczkowski A’49 (Hillyer) Fort Pierce, Fla., 6.21.2020 1950s Kathryn B. Diamond A’50 (Barney) West Hartford, Conn., 6.18.2020 Elaine S. Epstein A’50 (Barney) Delray Beach, Fla., 2.17.2020 Rosemary Satriano Malatesta A’50 (HCW) Glastonbury, Conn., 11.7.2020 Cynthia Pitt Bernstein ’51 (Hartt) Haworth, N.J., 4.27.2020 Mitchell J. Bollus ’51 (CETA) Millbury, Mass., 4.23.2020 Edward L. Lapinski A’49, ’51 (Barney) Meriden, Conn., 4.24.2020 Anne Y. O’Connor A’51 (Hillyer) Broussard, La., 4.8.2020 Gustav W. Erickson A’51, ’52 (Barney) Avon, Conn., 12.24.2020 Vincent J. Tarascio A’51 (Barney) Chapel Hill, N.C., 6.3.2020

Seth M. English A’56 (A&S) Wethersfield, Conn., 11.23.2020 William J. Gannon M’56 (ENHP) Mystic, Conn., 5.3.2020 Horst Heineman ’56 (Barney) Newington, Conn., 2.12.2020 Martin L. Cyr C’57, C’59 (Ward) Shelton, Conn., 11.11.2020 Judith Bailey Dobrow A’57 (HCW) Bloomfield, Conn., 4.22.2020 Norma F. Fasano A’57 (Barney) Glastonbury, Conn., 7.27.2020 Sebastian Gianni ’57 (CETA) West Hartford, Conn., 1.22.2020 Donald L. Langenauer A’57 (Hillyer) Berlin, Conn., 8.29.2020 Richard L. DeBaise ’58 (Hartt) Huntington, Conn., 4.21.2020

Donald Bidwell Sr. A’62 (Barney) Meriden, Conn., 1.23.2020

Robert E. Olsen ’65, M’69, P’88 (CETA) Windsor Locks, Conn., 3.17.2020

John F. Ferguson M’62 (ENHP) Rocky Hill, Conn., 5.22.2020

Anna A. Pestritto A’65, ’85 (Barney) Tampa, Fla., 4.11.2020

1970s Claudia D. Booker ’70, M’72 (A&S) Washington, D.C., 2.19.2020

John V. Prytko ’65 (Hartt) Manchester, Conn., 4.1.2020

Raymond L. Cox ’70 (A&S) Bridgeport, Conn., 11.23.2020

Barbara J. Roche M’65 (ENHP) Hartford, Conn., 12.26.2020

Ann J. Pienkowski M’70 (ENHP) Vernon, Conn., 9.13.2020

Robert E. Fortier ’62 (Barney) Sun City Center, Fla., 12.2.2020 Ronald L. Girard ’62 (Barney) Southwick, Mass., 9.25.2020 Thomas Johnson Jr. M’62 (ENHP) Saint Augustine, Fla., 11.5.2020 Alfred P. Knie Jr. M’62 (ENHP) Glastonbury, Conn., 9.19.2020 Edward R. Mascolo Jr. ’62 (Barney) West Hartford, Conn., 9.2.2020 Paul Michaelson ’62 (Barney) Shelton, Conn., 1.31.2020 Roland H. Chinatti M’63 (ENHP) Falls Village, Conn., 11.10.2020 Frank P. Corrado ’63 (Barney) Newington, Conn., 9.20.2020

Anita Arenstein Shear M’65 (ENHP) Newington, Conn., 9.6.2020 Georgia H. Day Silliman M’65 (Barney) West Hartford, Conn., 9.25.2020 Gloria Alfieri M’66 (ENHP) Kensington, Conn., 8.7.2020 Gerald M. Allardyce ’66 (CETA) Avoca, Pa., 4.30.2020 Carolyn M. Andrews M’66 (ENHP) Norwich, Conn., 1.6.2020 Lawrence D. Riley ’66 (A&S) Provincetown, Mass., 11.4.2020

John M. Farr A’54, ’58 (Barney) West Hartford, Conn., 4.1.2020

Ruth Novarr Hershman A’63 (ENHP) Bloomfield, Conn., 5.18.2020

Salvatore W. Lentine Dipl ’58 (Hartt) Niantic, Conn., 1.2.2020

Stephen P. Matava ’63 (Barney) Leesburg, Fla., 4.4.2020

Michael J. Vignone ’67 (A&S) Newington, Conn., 11.30.2020

Charline G. Whalen M’63 (ENHP) Canton Center, Conn., 7.22.2020

Richard W. Brough ’68 (A&S) Cheshire, Conn., 10.17.2020

Dorothy E. Paul M’58 (ENHP) East Hartford, Conn., 3.19.2020 Betsey Colgan Pitt M’58 (ENHP) Glastonbury, Conn., 7.12.2020 Matilda J. Giuliano M’59 (ENHP) Rocky Hill, Conn., 2.4.2020 Jack W. Kallinich ’59, M’62 (ENHP) Clinton, Conn., 6.5.2020 1960s Edward R. Demino M’60 (ENHP) Rocky Hill, Conn., 12.17.2020 Frederick R. Maher M’60 (ENHP) Marlborough, Conn., 7.23.2020

Bennett N. Zinkerman C’63 (Ward) Newington, Conn., 11.17.2020 Ruth A. Abramson M’64 (ENHP) West Hartford, Conn., 3.21.2020

Thomas B. Luby M’67 (ENHP) Rocky Hill, Conn., 5.6.2020

Richard R. Crockett M’68 (ENHP) Windsor, Conn., 1.20.2020 Russell A. Degrafft M’68 (ENHP) Old Lyme, Conn., 4.7.2020

Lois A. Slowik ’69 (HAS) Kensington, Conn., 11.16.2020

Margery L. Collins M’71 (A&S) Statesboro, Ga., 12.16.2020 Julia S. DeMaio A’66, ’71 (A&S) Avon, Conn., 3.13.2020 Morris Feldman ’71 (Barney) Sun City Center, Fla., 5.24.2020 Fay K. Kaplan M’71 (ENHP) Sarasota, Fla., 1.30.2020 Edgar J. Roberge M’71 (Barney) Old Saybrook, Conn., 6.12.2020 Ann Weinstein Seigel ’71 (ENHP) Sarasota, Fla., 6.23.2020 Louise C. Evans M’72 (ENHP) East Windsor Hill, Conn., 12.9.2020 Ann Gordon ’72, M’77 (ENHP) Old Lyme, Conn., 8.26.2020 Norman D. Hyer Jr. ’72 (Barney) Mystic, Conn., 7.20.2020 Craig D. James ’72 (A&S) West End, N.C., 7.8.2020 Norma G. Lefebvre M’72 (ENHP) Bloomfield, Conn., 7.15.2020

John Gagne C’64 (Ward) Rocky Hill, Conn., 6.23.2020

John A. Hargreaves M’68 (Barney) Sarasota, Fla., 6.8.2020

Francis A. Manning M’64, C’80 (ENHP) Southington, Conn., 10.8.2020

Zenobia R. Mendez A’68 (Hillyer) Newington, Conn., 6.16.2020

Sarah Wood Manns M’72, C’80 (ENHP) Hartford, Conn., 5.7.2020

James L. Morgan ’64 (Barney) North Haven, Conn., 11.9.2020

John J. Muirhead Jr. ’68 (Barney) Glastonbury, Conn., 12.16.2020

Susan S. Olsen ’72, M’93 (A&S) Somers, Conn., 6.22.2020

Donald A. Wilson M’64 (ENHP) Cromwell, Conn., 12.17.2020

Felix J. Tolisano ’60 (Barney) Somers, Conn., 9.12.2020

Joe T. Wright C’64 (Ward) Dayton, Ohio, 12.29.2020

William J. Hoppe ’52 (Hillyer) Palmyra, Va., 9.23.2020

John C. Tseka ’60 (CETA) Granby, Conn., 7.14.2020

William P. Culshaw ’65 (CETA) Bloomfield, Conn., 10.5.2020

Bernard Dansky A’52, ’53 (Hillyer) Toms River, N.J., 12.30.2020

Arthur H. Anderson M’61 (ENHP) Sherborn, Mass., 7.18.2020

Arthur A. Curry ’65 (Barney) Unionville, Conn., 3.29.2020

Muriel W. Scoler M’54 (ENHP) Henrico, Va., 7.22.2020

Vivian D. Kania M’61 (ENHP) Middletown, Conn., 8.18.2020

Joseph F. Tousignant C’54 (Hillyer) Agawam, Mass., 6.9.2020

John B. Mastrianni C’60, ’61 (HAS) Plainville, Conn., 2.16.2020

Silvio J. Coiro C’55 (Ward) West Hartford, Conn., 10.27.2020

Robert J. Valliere C’61 (Ward) Plainville, Conn., 9.1.2020

Andrew J. Donofrio ’65 (CETA) Newington, Conn., 2.19.2020 Joan Burke Drury M’65 (ENHP) West Hartford, Conn., 11.12.2020 Robert W. Lunny II ’65 (A&S) New York, N.Y., 3.19.2020 Judith L. Nappier A’65 (HCW) Pembroke Pines, Fla., 6.22.2020

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD

Earle E. Young M’68 (ENHP) Barkhamsted, Conn., 5.4.2020 Louis J. Zenga ’68 (Barney) Wilton, Conn., 11.30.2020 Anthony P. Cirone M’69 (HAS) Windsor, Conn., 6.4.2020 Nicholas C. Kazanas M’69 (Barney) Ooltewah, Tenn., 7.20.2020 Dana Meyerson Levine ’69 (ENHP) Garnerville, N.Y., 4.14.2020

Adam Leshem ’72 (CETA) Bloomfield, Conn., 2.20.2020

Ralph C. Patterson ’72 (Hartt) South Windsor, Conn., 12.6.2020 A. James Schneider M’72 (ENHP) Columbus, Ohio, 4.21.2020 Pamela E. Schoetzau ’72 (A&S) Enfield, N.H., 10.1.2020 Katharine Metcalf Sheldon A’72 (HCW) Providence, R.I., 1.31.2020 Robert J. Wallace ’72 (Barney) Andover, Conn., 12.5.2020

Terrence M. McBride ’69 (Barney) Berlin, Conn., 6.17.2020

Robert L. Drummond ’73 (Barney) Buffalo, N.Y., 10.15.2020

Joan T. Merrow M’69 (ENHP) Vernon Rockville, Conn., 8.15.2020

Regina C. Graham M’73 (ENHP) Bloomfield, Conn., 5.2.2020

Constance Q. Holth M’73 (A&S) Old Lyme, Conn., 8.22.2020 June K. Miley M’73 (ENHP) Hilton Head Island, S.C., 6.14.2020 Frank E. Polgroszek M’73 (Barney) Farmington, Conn., 6.20.2020 Peter D. Ramsdell M’73 (A&S) Cavendish, Vt., 8.2.2020 Thomas P. Reilly M’73 (Barney) Farmington, Conn., 5.16.2020 Frank J. Civale Jr. M’74 (ENHP) Meriden, Conn., 4.29.2020 James E. Gross M’74 (Barney) Fayetteville, N.C., 5.25.2020 Salvatore R. Italia C’74 (ENHP) Wilton Manors, Fla., 5.5.2020 Robert P. Knauff M’74 (Barney) Old Lyme, Conn., 7.2.2020 Shirley Zarchen Rosenthal ’74 (ENHP) Fayetteville, N.Y., 6.7.2020 Mildred Leister Wertz ’74, M’78 (A&S) Westerly, R.I., 9.3.2020 Robert W. Westgate M’74 (Barney) Newington, Conn., 12.7.2020 Susan J. Derby ’75 (A&S) Windsor Locks, Conn., 11.23.2020 Michael E. Grabon M’75, M’78 (Barney) Enfield, Conn., 12.3.2020 Daniel L. Stosick Sr. ’75 (CETA) Granville, Mass., 11.23.2020 Katharine W. Ellis ’77 (A&S) Marblehead, Mass., 12.12.2020 Gordon D. Gross M’76 (ENHP) Fernandina Beach, Fla., 2.17.2020 Judith L. Kline M ’76 (ENHP) Hartford, Conn., 8.24.2020 Maria J. Oltheten ’76 (A&S) Vernon Rockville, Conn., 1.21.2020 Charles F. Balin Jr. ’77 (Hartt) West Springfield, Mass., 6.13.2020 Bruce C. Bley M’77 (Barney) Roswell, Ga., 6.16.2020 Michael P. Cascia M’77 (ENHP) Enfield, Conn., 6.28.2020

Joyce A. Stengel ’81 (A&S) South Glastonbury, Conn., 3.20.2020

Norma Gardine Glenn M’78 (Barney) Palm Coast, Fla., 5.19.2020

Santo S. Buccheri ’82 (A&S) Hartford, Conn., 6.27.2020

Bruce G. Gold A’78, ’81 (Barney) Marblehead, Mass., 5.3.2020

Dennis H. Walker A’80, ’82 (CETA) Windsor, Conn., 5.11.2020

Gail A. Winship McCue M’78 (Barney) East Granby, Conn., 6.10.2020

Dr. Marsha R. Cohen M’83 (ENHP) West Hartford, Conn., 5.1.2020

Ralph W. Sandmeyer Jr. ’78 (Barney) Cornwall, Conn., 5.13.2020

Paul E. Gionfriddo M’83 (Barney) East Haven, Conn., 9.24.2020

Sandra A. Williams A’78 (HCW) East Hartford, Conn., 5.2.2020

Susan J. Glazier M’83 (Barney) Clayville, R.I., 5.8.2020

Clarence Gravely C’79 (ENHP) Hartford, Conn., 7.24.2020

Christine H. Larkin ’83 (Barney) Glastonbury, Conn., 10.26.2020

Nancy Marchand Kingsley ’79 (HAS) Vineyard Haven, Mass., 8.4.2020

Erik L. Stenson ’83 (Hartt) Florence, Mass., 11.15.2020

Russell Lundeberg M’79 (Barney) North Chesterfield, Va., 4.16.2020 Patricia E. Roach ’79 (A&S) Winsted, Conn., 12.8.2020 Robert T. Skau ’79, M’87 (Barney) Wethersfield, Conn., 6.1.2020 1980s Richard H. Bobowski ’80 (A&S) Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 11.2.2020 Carolyn R. Cistulli M’80 (ENHP) Brewster, Mass., 9.21.2020 Francis A. Cuoco ’80 (Barney) Naples, Fla., 12.23.2020 Rita A. Dewyea ’80, M’87 (Barney) Enfield, Conn., 11.8.2020 Edward Dobosz A’80 (Ward) Newington, Conn., 10.28.2020 Brian A. Gureckis A’78, ’80 (A&S) West Springfield, Mass., 7.23.2020 Gary Hutchinson M’80 (Barney) Dennis, Mass., 8.9.2020 John J. Testagrossa M’80 (Barney) Salem, Conn., 3.30.2020 Georgia Thomas C’80, M’93 (ENHP) Talladega, Ala., 10.11.2020

Jan Burnham McLachlan ’77 (ENHP) Somerville, N.J., 5.25.2020

Janet Breen Curr A’81 (HCW) Cheshire, Conn., 8.3.2020

Joseph S. Terzo ’77, M’82 (A&S) Hartford, Conn., 2.17.2020

Laura B. Schwartz ’82 (Barney) South Glastonbury, Conn., 9.2.2020

Ann O’Connell Long ’78 (A&S) Simsbury, Conn., 4.19.2020

Cynthia D. Hasler ’77 (ENHP) Gilmanton, N.H., 12.17.2020

R. Lee Scott M’77 (Barney) Bluffton, S.C., 5.3.2020

David A. Andrukiewicz ’78, M’80 (A&S) Summerfield, Fla., 10.25.2020

Dr. David M. McConnell C’81 (ENHP) Kennebunk, Maine, 6.7.2020

Thomas J. Szala M’83 (Barney) Bloomfield, Conn., 11.2.2020 James P. Wark ’83 (A&S) Richmond, Va., 2.7.2020 Francis M. Lewis ’85 (Barney) Palm Coast, Fla., 9.25.2020 Lisa A. Marsh A’82, ’85 (Barney) Simsbury, Conn., 9.8.2020 Carol Campi M’86, M’86 (Barney) Wyckoff, N.J., 1.13.2020 Mary-Jane McCarthy Dance ’86 (Barney) Granby, Conn., 5.1.2020 Debra Dresner M’87 (Barney) West Hartford, Conn., 7.13.2020 Bruce C. Ellefsen M’88 (Barney) Berlin, Conn., 6.8.2020

DANIEL ARSENAULT (1989–2020) Alumni Board member, and chair of its governance committee, Daniel A. Arsenault ’12 died peacefully on Dec. 24, 2020, following an accident. Arsenault graduated magna cum laude from UHart’s College of Arts and Sciences with a dual bachelor’s degree (psychology, rhetoric and professional writing). During his undergraduate days, he was president and secretary of Theta Chi fraternity, president and VP of communications for the Interfraternity Council, a student assistant in the Office of the President, and a manager for Student Centers Administration. Arsenault’s passion for advocacy quickly opened doors for him in Connecticut State Government, where he served as the assistant to the chief of staff in the Office of the Governor. This energy carried forward with him as he assumed the role of public information officer and the legislative programs manager for the Connecticut Department of Housing. It was during this time that Arsenault was lauded for his accomplishments in helping further initiatives to provide affordable housing options for citizens throughout the State of Connecticut. Most recently, his desire to help drive change forayed him into the parallel world of lobbying, where he was appointed as a senior director at O’Neill and Associates. Arsenault was a Board of Director member for Hands on Hartford—a social service nonprofit that serves Hartford’s economically challenged residents with food, housing, and health. He was also an advisory board member for UHart’s Governor M. Jodi Rell Center for Public Service. Holding a passion for embracing the beauty of nature and enjoying the company of those he held most dear, Arsenault loved to travel and play golf. His smile could brighten a room, regardless of the room he was in. But the time that Arsenault loved and cherished the most was spent with his family and friends, all of whom will greatly miss him. As a member of the Alumni Board, he once shared these words: “I am thankful for all the experiences I had, the people I met, the friends and brothers I made for life, and the opportunities that the University of Hartford afforded me. Because of my time as a student and the networking opportunities I took advantage of, I choose to remain an active part of campus life after graduation. I often call on fellow alumni as well as former professors and faculty for advice and find myself continuing to learn every day.” Dan Arsenault’s legacy will live on through the volunteer work of each and every member of UHart’s Alumni Board.

Lola W. Guglietta ’88 (HAS) South Glastonbury, Conn., 7.10.2020 Mary M. Hastings M’88 (ENHP) Atlanta, Ga., 6.9.2020 Jeffrey T. Shovak A’88, ’88 (Ward) Windsor Locks, Conn., 1.15.2020 Anthony M. Pavia III A’87, ’89 (Barney) Stamford, Conn., 11.30.2020 1990s John B. Peterson M’91 (Barney) Suffield, Conn., 12.8.2020 Ronald E. Belek ’92 (CETA) Coventry, Conn., 10.25.2020 Priscilla A. Soucy A’92 (HCW) East Hartford, Conn., 12.26.2020 Tracy Gugliotti Hughes A’95 (Hillyer) San Diego, Calif., 1.13.2020

Gary M. Harrigan M’96 (CETA) Bristol, Conn., 12.14.2020 Kieasha Martin Goods ’96, M’01 (Barney) Bloomfield, Conn., 5.20.2020 Lori J. Bono M’97 (ENHP) Glastonbury, Conn., 9.22.2020 2000s Deborah Archambeault M’00 (ENHP) Bristol, Conn., 9.7.2020 Kristine R. Quick Gilmour ’00 (CETA) Bel Air, Md., 1.30.2020 Scott L. Kaplan ’00 (A&S) Centennial, Colo., 5.2.2020 Eric M. Jones ’04 (A&S) Montville, Conn., 8.26.2020

Jose S. Correia ’06, P’03 (CETA) Hamden, Conn., 7.9.2020 Christopher F. Davis ’06 (HAS) East Longmeadow, Mass., 11.24.2020 2010s Sara J. Cohen ’11 (Hartt) Waccabuc, N.Y., 8.11.2020 Daniel A. Arsenault ’12 (A&S) Hartford, Conn., 12.24.2020 Eva C. Chambers ’14 (US) Port Orange, Fla., 11.19.2020 Shawn E. Kelly ’15 (Barney) Glastonbury, Conn., 5.23.2020 Terrell M. Campbell A’93, ’20 (A&S) Hartford, Conn., 1.5.2020

SUMMER 2021

52 / ALUMNI NOTES / WEDDINGS

AND

BABIES

PROUD TO BE A HAWK I’m ing grow a to be

HAWK

Getting married? Having a baby? Show your UHart pride by requesting a UHart pennant or onesie for your future Hawk at hartford.edu/uhart-gear. We’ll help you celebrate by sharing your news as a Class Note—online and in a future issue of H.

We Congratulate & Welcome... W EDDI N GS A N D E NG AG E M E N TS Tiffany Miller ’04 (A&S) was engaged in August 2020 and is planning a wedding for October 2021. [1] Max Cordova A’11 (Hillyer), ’13 (A&S) and Hana LaRock ’13 (ENHP) were married on Dec. 9, 2019, after eloping to The Mohicans, a tree-house resort in Glenmont, Ohio. Hana is a freelance writer, while Max is a teacher. The couple spent the past seven years abroad and traveling the world. [2] UHart Alumni Association Board member Nicole Pielli ’12 (A&S) and Thomas Pielli were married during a small ceremony that took place last June 20 in Clifton, N.J. They currently reside in Old Bridge, N.J. She is a lawyer at Griffin Alexander, PC. [3] After four postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Alexandra Arroya ’13 (A&S) and Matthew Merkent ’14 (CETA), M’16 (CETA) were married. The couple met on a trip to India with Engineers Without Borders. [4] Kathleen Cicchese ’14 (ENHP) and Ryan Baldassario were wed on Feb. 29, 2020, at The Riverhouse at Goodspeed Station in Haddam, Conn., along with several UHart alumni in attendance. Kathleen is a teacher, while Ryan works at the UConn School of Business. [5] Kristina Karlson ’14 (HAS) and Jason Pelletier were engaged on October 25, 2019. They welcomed their new puppy, Dash, into their lives that same weekend. A September 2021 wedding is planned in Vermont. [6] Nick Prieston ’14 (Barney) and Brooke Tallinger ’14 (A&S) were married Sept. 21, 2019. Brooke played volleyball and was a Red Cap, while Nick played rugby. [7] David Arena ’14 (CETA) and Becki Walter ’16 (Hartt) were married in a small ceremony in Glastonbury, Conn.—just 15 minutes away from where they met at UHart seven years ago. [8]

Arynn Elizabeth Rosenstein ’17 (ENHP) and Michael Martin Kelly ’18 (A&S) were recently engaged. Arynn is a special education teacher with Newington Public Schools. Mike is a route sales representative with Frito Lay, South Windsor, Conn. A November 2021 wedding is planned. [9] Jason Hubeny ’18 (ENHP and current DPT student) recently proposed to Haley Milone ’19 (A&S) at Elizabeth Park in West Hartford. Jason and Haley first met each other their first year at UHart in 2015 through the Pep Band and have been together since January 2016. Haley currently works as a Quack Pack instructor at Educational Playcare, while Jason is scheduled to graduate this year from UHart’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program. [10] Daniel Rombola ’18 (Barney), M’18 (Barney) has proposed to Brianna Pacileo ’18 (A&S) at Newport Vinyard in Newport, R.I. Daniel and Brianna first met their first year at UHart—they both lived in Hawk Hall and were a part of the Hawk Spirit residential living community. Daniel was a member of UHart’s men’s tennis team, and participated in a year of cross county and track, while Brianna was a member of the volleyball team. Brianna currently works as a solution senior consultant, cyber and strategic risk, at Deloitte, and Daniel is an investment analyst at Aetna. [11] HATCHLING S Brienna Reitmayr ’02 ’05 (A&S) and Aaron Spencer welcomed their daughter, Audrey Faith, on Feb. 1, 2020. [12] Jessica Fine Sowalsky ’05 (Hillyer), ’07 (A&S) and her husband, Adam, welcomed their second child, a baby girl, Shira Maya Sowalsky, on Oct. 30, 2020. To make this a memorable occasion, she shares her birthday with her 2-year-older brother, Ari. Jessica is a learning systems and courseware manager at the University of Maryland, and Adam is a principal

investigator at the National Cancer Institute, NIH. The family lives outside of Washington, D.C., in Bethesda, Maryland, with their 13-year-old Chiweenie, Papi. [13] Megan (Close) Zavala ’05 (A&S) and her husband, Michael, announced the birth of their son, Elliott Geoffrey Zavala, on May 14, 2020. He joins big sister, Poppy. [14] Robert G. Griffith III ’07 (Hartt) and Laura Engel ’07 (A&S) shared the arrival of their baby boy, Miles Robert Griffith, born March 20, 2020. [15] Josh Feldman ’10 (Hartt) and his wife, Xani Pollakoff ’11 (ENHP), M’19 (ENHP), announced the birth of their daughter, Nomi Mica Feldman, on May 17, 2020. Josh is in the arts and tourism industry, while Xani is a teacher. [16] Michael Goemans ’11 (ENHP), M’13 (ENHP) and his wife, Samantha, welcomed a son, Michael Franklin, on Nov. 14, 2020. [17] Caitlin Malinowski ’11 (A&S), M’15 (A&S) and her husband, Justin, welcomed a daughter, Harper Nicole, on Oct. 30, 2020. [18] Lauren ’12 (A&S) and Greg ’13 (A&S) Szuman welcomed their first child, Landon, on Aug. 13. His puppy sisters adore him and he’s already taken his first cross-country road trip with his parents! Even though he was born in San Diego, he can’t wait to grow up as a Texan. Maybe, someday, he will even become a UHart alumnus himself. [19] Eric Tunkel ’13 (Hartt) and his wife announced the birth of their first baby together, Micah Paxton Hunter Tunkel, on Feb. 26, 2020. They have two other children, Matthew and Noah. [20] Fnu Jyoti ’20 (CETA) and Parveen Kumar are parents to a son, Divit Dabas, born March 7, 2020. [21]

ALUMNI NOTES / NEWS

FROM

ALUMS

/ 53

See more class notes and photos online at hartford.edu/class-notes

21 SUMMER 2021

54 / ALUMNI NOTES / NEWS

FROM

ALUMS

H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE

ALUMNI NOTES / NEWS

The Anchor Award, the University of Hartford Alumni Association’s most prestigious award, is presented each Hawktober Weekend. The awards were established to recognize alumni who have distinguished themselves by achieving the highest levels of professional and community accomplishments. Recipients of the 2020 Anchor Awards were honored during a virtual ceremony and reception on Saturday, Oct. 17. BERNIE ROSEN ’61 M’66 Outstanding Alum: Impact on the University of Hartford

Bernard “Bernie” Hersh Rosen dedicated decades of his life to education, beginning his career in 1966 as a teacher at South Windsor High School, where he worked until 1977. He then went on to New Britain Senior High School from 1971 to 1995, holding positions as an accounting and business law teacher, chairperson of the business department, vice principal, and, lastly, as housemaster. Even in his retirement, he continued his service to education, working as a part-time substitute teacher and acting vice principal at Cromwell High School.

ABDULAZIZ ALOTHMAN ’14 Outstanding Alum: Early Career Professional

Abdulaziz S. AlOthman is a management consultant within the Strategy and Transformation team at Ernst & Young—one of the Big Four accounting firms in the United States and globally. AlOthman advises large organizations and government entities in the Middle East on executing corporate strategies, designing target operating models, and formulating customer experience strategies.

CHRISTOPHER ALBERT M’10 Outstanding Alum: Early Career Professional

Christopher P. Albert has established himself as a young leader throughout the finance space. Based in Hartford, he began his career with Deloitte in 2006 as a tax consultant, from which he quickly advanced to manager in 2010 and senior manager in 2013. In 2016, he was admitted to the partnership, where he serves as a business advisor and consultant to many of the firm’s largest clients in the insurance industry.

KENNETH GLUECK ’89 Outstanding Alum: Exceptional Professional Success

Kenneth Glueck is a well-known name in the tech space. He has spent more than two decades with the software giant Oracle, where he currently serves as executive vice president in the office of the CEO. As noted in Vox, Glueck “built a career as a tech lobbyist before there was a phrase for it.”

FROM

ALUMS

/ 55

SIDNEY KAPLAN ’69 Outstanding Alum: Exceptional Professional Success

After a yearlong worldwide trip overseas, Sidney Kaplan decided to change careers and joined the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer. He has served in the Philippines, Mauritania, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, as well as several years at headquarters in Washington, D.C. Kaplan was a member of the 43rd Senior Seminar, the Department’s executive leadership program available to senior foreign policy and national security officials of the international affairs agencies across the U.S. Government. In Washington, he served in senior positions in management and strategic planning, officially retiring from the Foreign Service in 2012. Kaplan was inducted as a Fellow of the Academy of Public Administration, a congressionally chartered non-partisan organization.

NELBA MÁRQUEZ-GREENE ’97 Distinguished Alumna Award

Nelba Márquez-Greene is the founder of The Ana Grace Project. She founded The Ana Grace Project in 2013 as a response to the school shooting in Sandy Hook, Conn., in 2012, which took the life of her daughter, Ana Grace Márquez-Greene. The Ana Grace Project is dedicated to promoting love, community, and connection for every child and family through three initiatives: partner schools, professional development, and music and the arts. (see story on page 28)

RACHNA KHANNA M’03 Outstanding Alum: Exceptional Professional Success

Rachna Khanna is the founder and managing partner of Rachna Khanna Law, LLC, based in Manchester, Conn. The firm specializes in immigration, naturalization, and small business law, as well as estate planning, personal injury, will planning, criminal defense, trust and estate litigation, and labor and employment law.

Watch for the selection of our 2021 Anchor Award recipients to be honored during Hawktober Weekend, Oct. 15–17

Katharina Lindner ’03 M’05

KATHARINA LINDNER ’03 M’05 Outstanding Alum: Posthumous Recognition

Katharina “Kat” Lindner was a gifted film and gender scholar, published author, and highly accomplished athlete. Lindner was a lecturer in film and media and a member of the Centre for Gender & Feminist Studies at the University of Stirling, UK. Her research interests were interdisciplinary and included gender and queer theory; feminist film and cultural criticism; question of identity, subjectivity, and embodiment; and film phenomenology, as well as media and sport. In 2017, Lindner published her book Film Bodies: Queer Feminist Encounters with Gender and Sexuality in Cinema, which takes existing debates into new directions and integrates queer and feminist theory with film phenomenology, exploring the female body’s presence in a range of genres including dance, sports, and queer cinema.

SUMMER 2021

56 / LOOKING BACK / FROM

THE

UHart H Magazine Summer 2021

Articles inside

H magazine summer 2021

Anchor Awards

Alumni Notes

Words of Wisdom

Synthesis

A Profile in Courage

A Perfect Match

A Hartt-Felt Reflection

First Class

UNotes

Observations

Hawk Nation

Mixed Media

Hawk's Eye View