Academic Hall of Honor

James D. Potter, Ph. D., FAHA J - class of 1961

James D. Potter, Ph. D., FAHA, earned a BS in Zoology from George Washington University in 1965.  He then studied at the University of Connecticut where he received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1970.  James went to the prestigious Boston Biomedical Research Institute in the fall of 1970 where he trained as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. John Gergley, a pioneer in the study of molecular mechanisms that underlie striated muscle contraction and regulation.  

He subsequently joined the Institute as a Staff Scientist in 1974 and also became an Associate in Neurology at Harvard.  In 1975, James left the Institute to join the faculty of Baylor College of Medicine as an Assistant Professor (his first faculty position) in the Department of Cell Biophysics.  After two short years, he became a faculty member at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine as an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Cell Biophysics.  

He was promoted to Full Professor in 1981. He later became Professor and Chairman of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine in 1983 at the young age of 38.  He has served in that position for over 25 years.  During his scientific career, James has published over 380 papers, book chapters, abstracts and reviews in the general area of contraction and relaxation of the heart and skeletal muscles in health and disease; and he has been invited to present his research at more than 160 scientific meetings and conferences.  

James mentored numerous postdoctoral associates, graduate students and high school students.  In 2007, he received the Mentor of the Year award from the Miami-Dade Public Schools Advanced Academic Internship Program for his work with high school students. In 2008, James decided to step down as chairman to pursue his research full time.  A pioneer in the field of muscle contraction and regulation, James is also considered a leader in the investigations of troponin and of cardiomyopathy due to troponin mutations.   He received numerous awards for his research, including being named a Fellow of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association and an NHLBI Merit Awardee. During his long tenure as Chairman, James created an environment that helps young scientists develop into superior scientists.  

In recognition of his contributions to the University of Miami and to the  Miller School of Medicine, James was inducted into the Iron Arrow Honor Society in 2002, the highest recognition for a University of Miami faculty member. James is currently Professor of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology and is also serving as Senior Advisor to the Dean of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Health and Medical Services

Jeffrey A. Flaks - class of 1989

Jeffrey A. Flaks earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Ithaca College in 1993 and a Master’s degree in Health Services Administration from George Washington University in 1996.

Jeffrey is the executive vice president and chief operating officer for Hartford Hospital, where he has overseen a dramatic shift in performance, service and culture. Hartford Hospital is one of the largest teaching hospitals and tertiary care centers in New England and one of the busiest surgical centers in the Northeast. Under the leadership of Mr. Flaks, Hartford Hospital has seen a $25-million improvement in operational performance and overall scores of nearly 95 percent on publicly-reported quality measures.

He launched a new, systematic focus on patient safety and quality and spearheaded, “How Hartford Hospital Works,” a nationally recognized hospital-wide culture change initiative. Mr. Flaks has been a driving force in the development and expansion of many significant Centers of Excellence at Hartford Hospital, including the Henry Low Heart Center, the Helen & Harry Gray Cancer Center, the Total Joint Center and the Trauma Program. And he has led efforts to greatly increase the number of patients who come for complex care to Hartford Hospital from secondary and tertiary markets, resulting in a five-percent increase in market share.  

Prior to his appointment at Hartford Hospital, Mr. Flaks served as executive vice president and chief operating officer for MidState Medical Center, also a member of the Hartford Health Care Corporation.  Mr. Flaks’ current governance appointments are on the boards of directors of The University of Hartford’s College of Education in Nursing and Health Professions, The Connecticut Hospital Association’s Diversified Network Services, Inc., The Urban League of Greater Hartford, The Connecticut Children’s Museum and The George Washington University Alumni Association. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. 

Lawrence M. Schaefer - class of 1963

Lawrence M. Schaefer earned a B.S. from Tufts University cum laude in Chemistry in 1967 and a Master of Philosophy degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University in 1969.  

After teaching chemistry and environmental studies at Amity for several years, Larry returned to graduate school where he received a Master of Philosophy in Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University and a Sixth Year Advanced Certificate in Educational Administration at Southern Connecticut State University in 1984. Larry has enjoyed a varied career in education beyond his teaching at Amity.

For eleven years he was an administrator at Area Cooperative Education Services, ACES, providing leadership in improving instruction and curriculum to districts throughout the state.  In 1987, he began a three year appointment at the Connecticut Department of Education as Bureau Chief for Curriculum and Instruction.  In this role he led major professional development initiatives from the Educational Enhancement Act. Because he wanted to return to working directly with teachers and administrators, his next position was as Curriculum Coordinator in the Hamden Public Schools.  

After two years in Hamden, he was appointed Associate Superintendent in the Milford Public Schools where he served fifteen years including serving as Superintendent in his final year.  Currently, Larry works as a consultant dividing his time between two educational organizations, Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, CAPSS, and the Connecticut Center for School Change.  His current focus is on improving student learning for all students. Over the course of his career, Mr. Schaefer has received many recognitions from peers and educational organizations.  After teaching at Amity, he received the Environmental Merit Award from the EPA.  Larry was awarded the Outstanding Leadership Award in 1988 from the Connecticut Organization for Professional Development after serving as its founding president.  

In 1993, he received recognition as the Connecticut ASCD Educational Leader of the Year.  The National School Boards Association recognized him for his leadership in technology. In the Milford District, students and faculty awarded him Honorary Life Membership in the TriM Music Honor Society for his work in advancing the arts in education.  The other, Children’s Empowerment Award, was from Kids Day America, International for his work on behalf of struggling learners. 

Michael Vespoli - class of 1964

Michael Vespoli graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in Business in 1968 and University of Massachusetts with a Masters degree in secondary school administration in 1974.  Mike’s rowing career started in 1964 when he joined the Georgetown University crew as a walkon in his freshman year.  

After a national championship-winning senior season at Georgetown, Mike went on to win 5 national titles and row on 7 US National teams.  He later successfully coached several universities and US National teams.  He was the head sculling coach for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, which the U.S. boycotted. He started his company, Vespoli USA, in 1980 and it has grown to be the largest racing shell manufacturer in North America.  

Located in New Haven, CT, Vespoli USA is a world-wide brand sold in over 20 countries.  In the company’s 30 year history, crews racing in Vespoli shells have won over 55 World Championship and Olympic Medals.  Mike is a former member of the U.S. Olympic Committee for Men’s Rowing, as well as a consultant to the President’s Commission on Olympic Sports, and was an NBC commentator for rowing in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

He was inducted into the Georgetown University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1979 and the National Rowing Foundation Hall of Fame 1985. In 2000 he was honored with the “Power Ten” award given to those who are committed to supporting the sport of rowing, both nationally and internationally.  Mike received the “Outstanding Contribution to Georgetown Athletics” Award in 2002. Mike and his wife Nancy established the Vespoli Family Crew Scholarship at Georgetown University in 2003 to provide financial aid to intercollegiate rowers who demonstrate financial need. In 2004, he led a fundraising campaign to save the Tulane University Crew program after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina.  Mike has been a longtime member of the Georgetown University Board of Regents and currently serves as the Chairman of the Athletics Committee.

Nancy L. Carrington - class of 1966

Nancy L. Carrington graduated from Hartwick College with a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and went on to earn her MBA from the University of New Haven. She currently serves as Executive Director of Connecticut Food Bank, which distributes food and other resources to food-assistance programs in six of Connecticut’s eight counties: Fairfield, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London, and Windham.

The mission of Connecticut Food Bank is to alleviate hunger. Under Nancy’s leadership, Connecticut Food Bank grew from a grassroots, volunteer organization into the largest centralized source of donated, emergency food in Connecticut, feeding more people in the state, including residents in some of the poorest cities in Connecticut. Nancy has led the effort to grow and strengthen the hunger-relief network in Connecticut so more people will be fed.

Nancy, who comes from a family with a long history of public service in Connecticut, works to establish strong foundations and partnerships with community groups, businesses, individuals, government agencies and civic and social organizations. Nancy firmly believes that it is through this collective effort that we as a community can alleviate hunger one person at a time, one neighborhood at a time and one community at a time. A number of organizations have honored Nancy for her service to the community and for her exemplary leadership in helping people in need.

These organizations included Connecticut Public Health Association, Interfaith Cooperative Ministries and New Haven Business Times. Nancy joined Connecticut Food Bank in 1984 as a food solicitor, prodding local and regional companies to donate their excess and un-saleable products. Nancy became Executive Director of Connecticut Food Bank in 1989. In 1989, Connecticut Food Bank, through its one warehouse, distributed 3.61 million pounds of food to 405 food-assistance programs. That was about 7 tons of food every business day. Today, Connecticut Food Bank, with its three warehouses and two partner sites, distributes 35 tons of food every business day. In 2008, Connecticut Food Bank distributed more than 16 million pounds of food.

Since 1989, Nancy has worked tirelessly to grow Connecticut Food Bank, but she knows more has to be done to fully meet the need in Connecticut. So she remains dedicated to the mission of Connecticut Food Bank. “Food should not be a privilege. It should be a basic human right. It is appalling to me that there are people in this country without enough food,” Nancy said. “As a nation, we produce enough food to feed everyone. Our challenge, as citizens and neighbors, is getting the food to the people who need it.”

Susan Davenny Wyner - class of 1961

Susan Davenny Wyner graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University in comparative literature and music. She continued her studies at Columbia and Yale Universities. In 1998, The American Orchestra League named her a Catherine Filene Shouse Conductor – a first-time award given by a national panel of conductors and orchestral managers to a conductor poised for major career.

Susan Davenny Wyner has received national acclaim for her conducting. The Library of Congress featured her in its 2003 "Women Who Dare" Engagement Calendar, and the MacNeilLehrer Newshour and WGBH Television have presented special documentary features on her life and work. Susan Davenny Wyner's conducting credits include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera, the Odense Danish Symphony, and Cleveland Orchestra members in three separate benefit concerts. She has conducted concerts at the Hollywood Bowl, at the Tanglewood and Aspen Music Festivals, in Italy and the Czech Republic, and has recorded for Bridge and Albany Records.

André Previn, Lynn Harrell, Claude Frank, Peter Serkin, and Emanuel Ax, have been among her guest soloists. She is Music Director and Conductor of two professional opera companies: Boston Midsummer Opera and Opera Western Reserve (Ohio), in addition to The Warren Philharmonic Orchestra (a professional orchestra near Cleveland, Ohio). From 1999-2005, she was Music Director and Conductor of The New England String Ensemble in Boston, a professional string orchestra that she brought to national prominence.

She has held conducting positions at New England Conservatory, The Cleveland Institute of Music, Wellesley College, and Brandeis and Cornell Universities, and she has conducted numerous lecture demonstrations and master-classes in Europe and the States--for the Conductors Guild National Convention, at Harvard and Yale Universities, among many others.

Trained initially as a violinist and violist, Susan Davenny Wyner went on to an international career as a soprano—singing with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Symphony, the New York, Los Angeles, and Israel Philharmonics, among many others.  She performed regularly with conductors Leonard Bernstein, Erich Leinsdorf, Colin Davis, André Previn, Robert Shaw, Lorin Maazel, Seiji Ozawa, Michael Tilson Thomas, and recorded for Columbia Masterworks, Angel/EMI, Naxos, New World, CRI and Musical Heritage.

After a hit and run accident destroyed her singing voice, she began her career as a conductor. In 1998, The American Orchestra League named her a Catherine Filene Shouse Conductor – a first-time award given by a national panel of conductors and orchestral managers to a conductor poised for major career. 

THOMAS W.  MURPHY, VI

For nearly two decades, THOMAS W.  MURPHY, VI has served as Cabinet member and advisor to the Connecticut Commissioner of Education and the State Board of Education. He works with superintendents of schools and boards of education in the state’s 166 public school districts. In this role, he also serves as chief spokesperson for the Connecticut State Department of Education on numerous public policy issues and concerns.

He has responsibility for the State Education Department's Public Information Office, including liaison with other agencies and organizations, press and media relations, and the public reporting of educational research data, and annual statewide SAT and Connecticut Mastery Test and Connecticut Academic Performance Test results.  He represents the Department on the Connecticut Coalition for Public Education which is comprised of the leadership of the seven major education groups in Connecticut.  

Mr. Murphy has spent nearly thirty years working with government, the media and the education community.  He has worked closely with school superintendents, boards of education, mayors and first selectmen, legislators, the Governor’s Office, and the local, state and national press.

Early in his career, he served as Director of Communications for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) -Connecticut's municipal league-- which represents Connecticut's cities and towns in Hartford and in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Murphy then served as Associate Executive Director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE), where he worked with the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, the Connecticut Association of Schools and statewide teachers’, administrators’ and parents’ associations.

He helped to found and was the editor of two statewide journals:  Connecticut Town and City which is read monthly by more than 5,000 municipal officials statewide and The CABE Journal which is published for Connecticut's local and regional board of education members and school superintendents. He also published the book:  A Community Relations Guidebook for Connecticut's Public Schools.  He has lectured on public policy and education issues at several colleges and universities including Central and Southern Connecticut State Universities, St. Joseph College, Trinity College, the University of New Haven and Yale University.

For the past seventeen years, his work in the Office of the Commissioner has brought him close to such issues as No Child Left Behind, Universal Preschool, Closing the Achievement Gap Initiatives, Sheff v. O’Neill, Early Reading Intervention programs and Public Secondary School Reform.  

JODY SAVIN

Jody is a writer and movie producer.  Under her production banner Unclaimed Freight Productions, Savin and her partner/husband Randall Miller have written and independently produced Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & Charm School (starring Robert Carlyle, John Goodman, and Marisa Tomei), Bottle Shock (starring Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, and Chris Pine) and Nobel Son (starring Alan Rickman, Mary Steenburgen, Bill Pullman and Danny DeVito).

Savin also produced Miller’s studio films The Sixth Man and Houseguest for Disney.  In 1989 Savin won a Cine Golden Eagle for her work as a writer on the Turner documentary, Chico Mendes: Voice of the Amazon.  She has been nominated for three Emmy’s for her work in musical direction.  She graduated from Amity Senior High School in Woodbridge Connecticut in 1978.  She received a BA from Princeton University and an MFA from the American Film Institute.  

Savin is currently prepping Unclaimed Freight’s next independent film, The Raise.  She and Miller have joined the publicly traded company Consolidated Pictures Group (CPG) as its Co-Heads of Production and Acquisitions.  CPG will be doing film acquisitions and distribution as well as production.  CPG’s first release will be I Love You Phillip Morris, starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, which Miller and Savin picked up at Sundance 2009.

HOWARD SHERMAN

Howard joined the American Theatre Wing as Executive Director in 2003. In that role, he oversees all of the Wing's operations, including its "Working in the Theatre" TV program; its radio show "Downstage Center," which he cohosted for more than four years on XM Satellite Radio; the Theatre Intern Group, SpringboardNYC, and other initiatives designed to help students and audiences understand more about how theatre is made; and the Jonathan Larson Grants for emerging musical theatre creators.  He is also the organization's primary representative in the planning of the annual Tony Awards, the top honor for theatrical achievement on Broadway, which the Wing created in 1947.  

Immediately prior to ATW, he spent three years as Executive Director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford CT, overseeing the Center's educational and developmental programs, shepherding more than $1 million worth of physical plant upgrades, and re-branding The O'Neill through a coordinated communications initiative. Sherman was Managing Director of Geva Theater in Rochester (1998-2000), where he completed a $6 million capital campaign and opened the company's 135-seat Nextstage.  

He was the first General Manager of Goodspeed Musicals (1994-1998), working on 24 new and classic musicals, including the U.S. Premiere of Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber's By Jeeves. As Public Relations Director of Hartford Stage (1985-1993), he represented 50 shows, from Mark Lamos' productions of Hamlet and Peer Gynt with Richard Thomas to Marvin's Room, Other People's Money, and Our Country's Good, the latter three prior to New York runs. He began his theatre career in the box office of the Annenberg Center in Philadelphia, followed by press positions with the Philadelphia Festival Theater for New Plays, Westport Country Playhouse, and Manhattan Theatre Club.

He has taught and/or guest lectured at the Yale School of Drama, North Carolina School of the Arts, Hartt School of Music and University of Connecticut; is a corporation member of The Neighborhood Playhouse and on the National Board of Advisors of The Actors Fund; and served as an on-site evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a native of New Haven, was raised in Orange and is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania.

BRIAN YALE

Brian Yale, originally from Orange, CT, graduated from Amity High School in 1987.  While an Amity student Brian studied trumpet and played in the school’s marching band.  At that time Brian also began playing bass guitar.  During Brian’s junior year, in Chris Hickerson’s music theory class, his bass playing became more proficient and he switched from trumpet to bass full time.  That following summer Brian attended the Berklee School of Music bass summer intensive program.  During Brian’s senior year music became his main focus and he enrolled in Mr. Hickerson’s Music Theory Two course. This class of four students spent the entire year dissecting Beethoven’s 5th symphony; this type of focus was unheard of in a public school setting.  Brian fully believes that it was the encouragement of his teacher, Mr. Hickerson,  that instilled the desire in him to study music and made the idea of pursuing a career in music a reality.  Brian took part in many of the Amity Music Department events that year, including the annual Pops concert.  Brian was then accepted into the prestigious Berklee School of Music.

Brian spent one year at Berklee School of Music in music education, before transferring to the University of Miami.  As a student at the University of Miami, Brian majored in Music Industry and immersed himself in jazz and classic rock.  His favorite memories of his time at UM are playing in different bands every week for a grade in his rock class, as well as cheering on the Hurricanes football team.  Brian received his B.M. in 1993 and proceeded to enroll in the audio engineering program at Full Sail University. Shortly after graduating from Full Sail the band Brian had been playing with, Tabitha’s Secret, known today as Matchbox Twenty, was offered a record deal. Since making their debut 12 years ago, Matchbox Twenty has become one of the most admired and consistently successful rock bands in recent history, with over 35 million albums sold worldwide. Named as the “Best New Band” by the 1997 Rolling Stone Readers Poll, the band has logged an extraordinary string of hit singles, including such chart-topping favorites as “3AM,” “If You’re Gone,” “Bent,” “Unwell” and the recent hit, “How Far We’ve Come.”  Matchbox 20 has been nominated for four Grammy awards, five American Music Awards, Two MTV Video Music Awards and was the 2004 People’s Choice award winner for Favorite Music Group.   

DANIEL I. PAPERMASTER, J.D.

Daniel is managing partner of Bingham McCutchen’s Hartford office. He focuses on corporate law and corporate finance, primarily representing various types of financial institutions, hedge funds and large corporations in financing and restructuring transactions. A significant portion of his practice is concentrated on syndicated bank financings, representing hedge funds in debt and equity investments and cross-border financings representing institutional investors of privately placed debt.

He also represents numerous entities involved in economic development projects in Hartford. Dan earned a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctor at the University of Texas School of Law. Dan has long been active in Connecticut politics. In March 2009, he was appointed by Sens. Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman to serve on the select committee to screen candidates for high-level federal appointments, including Connecticut's next U.S. attorney and federal magistrates in Connecticut. He also served as general chairman of Hartford Debate ’96, the organizing committee that hosted the first presidential debate of 1996 between Pres. Bill Clinton and Sen. Bob Dole. He acted as senior adviser to Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s 2000 vice presidential campaign, as legal counsel to Sen. Lieberman’s 2006 U.S. Senate campaign, and as the lead negotiator of Sen. Lieberman’s Senate debates. He has also worked on the transition teams of both U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman.

In addition, Dan was a member of U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd’s campaign and senate staff. In 2003, he was appointed by the mayor of the City of Hartford to chair a commission to reorganize the Corporation Counsel’s office of the City of Hartford. Dan is also involved in community activities. He serves on the board of directors of Camp Laurelwood. He has been the chairman of Hartford’s Mark Twain Days Festival.

He also served on the original steering committee of the Connecticut Capitol Region Growth Council for the Millennium Project and on the board of directors of the Community Relations Council of Greater Hartford Jewish Federation, the Mark Twain House and the WKND Greater Hartford Initiative. Daniel has received many honors and awards: Twice named one of the “40 under Forty” by the Hartford Business Journal (1997, 2000); Recipient, Chairman’s Award from the Hartford Downtown Council (1997); and Recipient, “Bring it Home to Hartford” Award from the Greater Hartford Convention and Visitors Bureau (1996).

BRANDON JAMES BREI

Brandon was a resident of Orange, CT for most of his life.  He received his primary education in the Amity School System from Kindergarten through Senior High School.  During his Elementary School years at Peck Place School, he was active in the Cub Scouts and served as an Altar Boy at Holy Infant Church in Orange.  While attending Amity Junior High School, he played Baseball with the Orange Little and Babe Ruth Leagues.  He was also active in the Boy Scouts attaining the achievement of Eagle Scout.  During his attendance at Amity Senior High School he was a member of the National Honor Society, the National Art Honor Society, Youth and Government Club, and the Embers Business Board.  Additionally, he lettered in Cross Country, Indoor Track, and Outdoor Track. Brandon was a member of Amity’s 1994 Graduating class. After high school, he earned his Bachelor of Science summa cum laude at UMASS with a double major in Biology and Entomology.  

He was accepted to the Ph.D. program in Microbiology at Yale University in the fall of 1999. He joined the Vector Ecology Laboratory of Dr. Durland Fish at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (EPH). After his first semester at Yale, Brandon was granted a leave of absence for one year for a Fulbright fellowship in Brisbane, Australia. There, he was able to take classes in microbiology, parasitology and tropical medicine as well as research the biology of a biting midge species. Brandon returned to Yale in 2001 and began work on a diversity of research projects. His overall research interest focused on the ecology of vector-borne spirochetes, including the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, and a recently discovered relapsing fever group Borrelia. The primary aim was to determine how these tick-borne Borrelia populations are maintained in nature.

As one of five recipients of a CDC Fellowship in Vector-Borne Disease at Yale University, Brandon traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico to spend a week studying Dengue Fever at the CDC Dengue Research Lab. During the week, the group, which consisted of 10 doctoral and masters students from the Departments of Epidemiology and Public Health and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, listened to presentations on the ecology, epidemiology, and entomology of Dengue, met with local mosquito control officials, and learned to trap and identify mosquitoes.  

In March of 2003, the group planned to spend the day snorkeling and swimming near Fajardo, a town on the northeast coast of the island. It was here that Brandon drowned while rescuing another student who was caught in the strong current.  Amity Hall of Honor 3 Brandon’s research has been published in several academic journals in both the U.S. and Australia.  In addition to research, Brandon maintained a close relationship with his family and friends that represent all facets of his life. He touched the lives of everyone who knew him. Brandon will be dearly missed and remembered forever. 

David A. Rothberg - Class of 1972

David A. Rothberg, Chairman and C.E.O. of LATICRETE International, Inc., holds a M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts. David obtained his Bachelor of Science degrees in geology and chemistry from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

He has also completed courses at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Law School, and an advanced management program at the International Institute for Management Development (I.M.D.) in Lausanne, Switzerland. David has been employed in the tile and stone installation industry since 1970, when he started in the laboratories of LATICRETE.

Over the years, his responsibilities have included Research Scientist, Production Engineer, Technical Services Representative, and Vice President of Finance and Administration. As CEO of LATICRETE, David travels extensively, supporting customers and company operations in over 65 countries.  

When not working, he is an avid mountain climber and white water canoeist. His expedition travels have taken him from the highest points on five continents, to Antarctica. David is a member of the World Presidents’ Organization and has served on the boards of the Ceramic Tile Institute of America, and the International Council of the Ceramic Tile Distributors of America.

He also serves as a Director of the Marlin Firearms Company. David is a member of the Advisory Council of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), of Lander, WY., USA.  NOLS is the leader in wilderness education.

John A. Shutkin - Class of 1967

John graduated with a B.A. cum laude from Harvard College in 1971 and earned his Juris Doctor from Columbia University school of Law in 1974. Following graduation, John was a litigation associate with a New York law firm, and then moved to KPMG’s US office in the Office of general Counsel, becoming Deputy General Counsel.  

A general counsel is essentially a lawyer for the other lawyers in a firm.  Following service as General Counsel and Vice President of Kodak Polychrome Graphics, he returned to KPMG International as General Counsel.  In 2004, John became the first General Counsel for Shearman & Sterling LLP, a global law firm. Among John’s current not-for-profit board memberships are the Partnership for After School Education (PASE), where he is on the Executive Committee; the National Center for Law and Economic Justice; Bank Street/Liberty Leads; Connecticut Appleseed; and the Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems , of which he is currently Chair.  

Previously, he served on the boards of the Bank Street College of Education, 1986-2002, where he was General Counsel, 1986-1989, and then served as Chairman of the Board, 1989-1996; The Spence School, 1996-2004, Secretary and Executive Committee, 2001-2004; the Correctional Association of New York, 1989-1997; the Mount Sinai Medical Center Research Review Committee, 19821986; and he has been active in the Legal Aid Society (where he co-chaired its Associates Campaign for two years) and various bar associations and their committees.  

Currently, he is a member of the Professional & Judicial Ethics Committee of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, which issues opinions and provides counseling to lawyers on matters of legal ethics. In the field of Education

Joseph A. DiMicco - Class of 1965

Joseph DiMicco graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in biology and earned his Ph.D. with distinction in pharmacology from Georgetown University following a period in the US Army. After he received his degree, Joseph was a staff fellow with the National Institutes of Mental Health before beginning his career at Indiana University.

Today, Joseph serves as Chancellor’s Professor of Pharmacology and Neurobiology at Indiana University School of Medicine. This title was created to recognize senior faculty with a career-long record of high level achievement in all three areas of faculty work: teaching, research/creative works, and civic engagement. 

Among his awards and honors are Carrie E. Wolff Award, American Heart Association, Indiana Affiliate, the Otis R. Bowen Award, Dean's Council, Indiana University School of Medicine, the Indiana University-Purdue University Teaching Excellence Recognition Award, and multiple Indiana University Trustees Teaching Awards.

Joseph has served as the Director of the Medical Pharmacology Course since 2001. During his tenure he has updated the curriculum and introduced new teaching methods, leading to the teaching awards. Joseph is also a highly respected scientist on both a national and international level, having made seminal discoveries that have significantly impacted knowledge of how the brain modulates the body during stress.

David H. Bell - Class of 1967

Following his graduation from Yankton College with a summa cum laude B.A. in theatre and an M.A. with honors from the University of Virginia, David Bell has consistently been involved in some of the most exciting and creative elements of theatre. David’s career has spanned a wide range of international and national projects, as director, choreographer and author.  

David has served as Artistic Director of the historic Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C., Associate Director of the Alliance Theatre Company in Atlanta, and the Resident Director at Marriott’s Lincolnshire Theatre in Chicago. He has worked extensively with the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.  He has also directed and choreographed plays and theater productions both on and off Broadway in New York, not to mention on London’s West End.

Among the highlights of David’s extensive career are an impressive number of award nominations including a Laurence Olivier Award (London), ten Joseph Jefferson Awards in Chicago, a Helen Hayes Award in DC for Best Director, the LA Dramalogue Award Best Director, several awards in New York City, and three awards in Atlanta, two for director, one for choreographer.

David also earned two National Endowment Playwriting Awards. David is the award-winning author of HOT MIKADO, and the choreographer of THE SPIRIT OF ATLANTA, the 1992 Barcelona Olympic closing ceremonies. David has directed and choreographed productions with such people as Jimmy Buffett and Herman Wouk.

Jamie Drake (James Drabkin) - Class of 1975

It’s important, as Jean Cocteau once said not to confuse seriousness with gravity. Jamie Drake, a New York-based designer, doesn’t. Jamie is one of the country’s most dynamic and distinctive interior designers of livable spaces.  While still in high school, Jamie worked for the state’s leading contract design firm and during his undergraduate years at Parsons, The New School for Design, he held a student internship in the office of the late Angelo Donghia.

After earning a Certificate in Environmental Design from Parsons and a B.F.A. from The New School for Social Research, Jamie launched his firm, Drake Design Associates, immediately after graduation in 1978.  Jamie’s notable residential interiors include a Los Angeles showplace for Madonna and multiple projects for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, including the recent renovation and restoration of Gracie Mansion and the redesign of various rooms at City Hall. Jamie has designed rooms for several of the major show houses.

His work has been widely published in the leading journals, including Architectural Digest, French Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, and House Beautiful, as well as The New York Times, House & Garden, Newsday, Interior Design, and The New York Post. Jamie also has appeared on Bloomberg TV, CNN’s Style with Elsa Klensch, and HGTV.  He also has presented lectures on a range of design topics at major conferences and shows. Chief among Jamie’s professional awards was his 2003 induction into the Interior Design Hall of Fame—Interior Design magazine’s venerable acknowledgement of great achievement in the field, the IFDA New York Circle of Excellence for interior design, and the Andrew Martin International Interior Designer of the year.  

He also received the 2000 D & D Designers of Distinction Award and a recent Partnership for the Homeless Director’s Award. In addition, he has served three times as a judge for the Sub-Zero National Kitchen Design Competition. He is an active member of the New York Chapter of ASID, for which he served as vice president.

Joshua W. Benson - Class of 1994

Joshua Benson graduated from New York University cum laude, with a major in Metropolitan Studies. He is the Director of the Bicycle Program for the New York City Department of Transportation. He is currently overseeing New York City's 3year, 200-mile on-street bicycle network expansion, the most aggressive and innovative such build-out in City history.

Under his leadership, the program was recently honored with a "Bicycle Friendly Community" designation by the League of American Bicyclists. New York is the only community in the region to have earned this award. Joshua was the Deputy Director of the Bicycle Program from 2000 to 2004 and has worked in his present role since 2006.

In the intervening years, Joshua received a Masters degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University. While studying, he worked at Columbia's Urban Technical Assistance project where he collaborated with other students on a planning analysis for an affordable housing project being developed in Central Harlem.

Joshua also worked for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), where he oversaw an initiative in the Communications Department make information about NYCHA programs more accessible via the City's website.

Martha (Marti) Maschmeier Rosenberg - Class of 1968

Marti Maschmeier Rosenberg earned a B.A. in political science with honors from the University of Pennsylvania and later received a M.B.A. from Vanderbilt.   Marti was one of the founders of the Young Leaders Council and served as its first director.  She also worked at the Tennessee State Museum and Meharry Medical College.  

Marti served as Executive Director of the OUR KIDS Center which provides services to children who may have experienced sexual abuse.  In her thirteen years with OUR KIDS, Marti oversaw significant growth in services and staff, and coordinated both the $2 million capital campaign for a new facility and simultaneously the construction of the new center.  

Marti received the Paragon Award for Sustainer Service in 2006 from the Junior League of Nashville and was a nominee for the Athena Award In 2006 Marti started her new business "Smooth Transitions," which offers a variety of services including household downsizing, move coordination, and estate dispersal. Marti volunteers as Chairman of the Resource Council for the Nashville Children's

Theatre, where she was formerly Chair of the Board of Trustees, and for the Talking Library, where she is best known as the voice of all the Harry Potter books. She is active in the Junior League of Nashville and was selected for the first class of Leadership Nashville when she was just 26. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Eagle’s Nest Foundation.  Marti also finds time for reading, swimming, and working with a patent attorney and product design company crafting inventions.

Mark A. Marieb, M.D. - Class of 1977

Dr. Mark Marieb earned a combined B.A. / M.D. at Boston University. During his undergraduate years he was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Medical Sciences. He graduated from Boston University School of Medicine, magna cum laude, in 1984.  During his junior year in medical school, he was elected into the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha Honors Medical Society.

Mark received the Dean Eleanor Tyler Memorial Award and Internal Medicine Award from Boston University School of Medicine in 1984. He received several awards, including the Samuel D. Kushlan Award, for Intern and then Resident contributing most to patient care at Yale-New Haven Hospital, 1984, 1985-1986. He was then chosen to be Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at Yale from 1987-1988.  After completing one year of Cardiology Fellowship at the University of Virginia, he returned to Yale, where he completed his training in Cardiology and in Cardiac Electrophysiology (cardiac arrhythmias.) He subsequently has been in private practice in cardiac electrophysiology at the Arrhythmia Center of Connecticut in New Haven since 1991.

Affiliated with The Hospital of St. Raphael, Yale-New Haven Hospital and Griffin Hospital, Mark implants pacemakers and defibrillators and performs catheter ablations. Mark is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology. He is currently a member of The American Medical Association, The American Heart Association, The American College of Physicians, the Heart Rhythm Society and The New Haven County Medical Association. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology.

Richard Treffers, PhD. - Class of 1965

Richard graduated with an A.B. from Yale University in 1969 with departmental honors in physics and a PhD. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1965. Richard is an astronomer/engineer at the University of California at Berkeley and has worked to perfect the robotic telescope which discovered the supernova, 1999em.  He works with astronomers world-wide. While at his first job at the Lunar Lab of the University of Arizona in Tuscan, Richard and his colleagues made the discovery of Molecular hydrogen in space, which was long hypothesized, but elusive.

He worked briefly at NASA Ames, and then received a post as engineer at U.C. Berkeley helping faculty develop astronomical instrumentation. Since 2003, Richard has been involved in the design and construction of a small astronomical observatory that is part science and part art and education in Sonoma. Recently, Richard has finished the automation of a 1.2 meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

This RCT telescope is operated by a consortium of universities. Among many of his distinguished publications include: Detection of Molecular Hydrogen  Quadruple Emission in the Orion Nebula, published in the Astrophysical Journal, 15, July 1976, vol. 207; A Single Etalon Fabry-Perot Spectrometer for Observations of Nebulae at Visible and Infrared Wavelengths, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, April-May 1981, vol.93; A Rooftop Radio Observatory - An undergraduate telescope system at the University of California at Berkeley-American Journal of Physics,Sept. 1998, vol.66. Currently, Richard is selling these robotic telescopes in his newly-found entrepreneurial endeavors.  

Christopher Antonetti - Class of 1992

Christopher begins his sixth season as Assistant General Manager of the Cleveland Indians baseball club and is in his ninth season overall with the organization.  Antonetti joined the Indians organization prior to the 1999 season as an assistant in the baseball operations department. He was promoted to Director of Major League Operations in August of 2001 and was elevated to Assistant GM in January of 2002.

In his current role, Chris assists Mark Shapiro in all player acquisitions, contract negotiations and player evaluations as well as the day-to-day operations of the baseball department. He also oversees the information systems, statistical analysis and video scouting within the Baseball Operations Department as well as the organization’s Major League and Professional Scouting activities. Chris began his career in professional baseball in the summer of 1997 with an internship with the Montreal Expos in West Palm Beach, FL.

He was later hired as Assistant Director of Player Development with the Expos in November of 1997 and served in that position before joining the Indians staff. He graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University in 1996 with a degree in business administration and earned a masters degree from the University of Massachusetts in sports management the following year. At Georgetown he was a student manager for the men’s basketball team for one and a half years under John Thompson. 

Patricia Levey Lebow, JD - Class of  1965

Patricia has been practicing law full time since her admission to the Florida Bar in 1974. After graduating Cum Laude in Journalism from Boston University in 1969, Patricia earned the J.D. degree from the University of  Miami School of Law in 1973. In 1976, she was the first woman to join the law firm of Broad and Cassel, and in 1983 founded the West Palm Beach office of this firm, which under her direction has grown to its current size of 26 attorneys and 40 support personnel. Patricia was also the first woman to be elected to the Young Lawyers Board of Governors of the Florida Bar and first woman director of Dade County Bar.

Throughout her career she has handled cases in all areas of civil litigation, and she is currently a Florida Bar certified mediator for circuit court and family law mediation. Patricia has been an active civic leader in her community. At the present time, she serves as a member of the Business Development Board, the Palm Beach Zoo Board, the Economic Council of the Palm Beaches, the Economic Council of the Palm Beaches, the Executive Committee of the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, as well as of other civic organizations in her community.

Her past involvement in other civic activities is extensive. Additionally, she acted as a founder of the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, the University of Richmond, the Mount Sinai Medical Center Foundation, and the Israel Tennis Centers. Patricia’s accomplishments have been recognized by a number of awards. She was named Outstanding Business Leader of the Year for Palm Beach County (Sun Sentinel, Excalibur Award 2005), one of South Florida’s Legal Elite  (Florida Trend 2005), one of Florida’s Top Lawyers (South Florida Legal Guide 2005)and one of South Florida’s most successful business women (South Florida Business Journal 2002). She was the winner of the March of Dimes Women of Distinction Award in 2001 and the Executive Women Leadership Award in 2000. 

Ellen Daniell, PhD - Class of 1965 

Ellen is the author of "Every Other Thursday: Stories and Strategies from Successful Women Scientists" [Yale University Press, 2006].  She is currently a writer and lecturer in the areas of technology licensing and University / Industry Relations. Ellen has held leadership positions at Roche Molecular Systems where she was Director of Licensing. She has also served as Director of Business Development PCR for a division of Cetus Corporation where she was director of licensing. Ms.

Daniel has also served as senior Director of Personnel for Cetus Corporation. In earlier years she served as Assistant Professor for Molecular Biology at the University of California San Diego. Ellen earned her undergraduate BA with high honors in chemistry from Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA. She earned a PhD in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. 

Penny Schine Gold, PhD - Class of 1965

Penny is Professor of History at Knox College, where she has taught since 1976.  She received a bachelor's degree in history in 1969 from the University of Chicago and a doctoral degree in medieval studies from Stanford University in 1977.  She has also taught at the University of Cincinnati and had visiting appointments at the University of Iowa and the University of Chicago.  

She is the author of The Lady and the Virgin: Image, Attitude, and Experience in Twelfth-Century France (University of Chicago Press, 1985), co-editor of Cultural Visions: Essays in the History of Culture (Rodopi, 2000), co-author of The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career: A Portable Mentor for Scholars from Graduate School through Tenure (University of Chicago Press, 2001), and author of Making the Bible Modern: Children's Bibles and Jewish Education in Twentieth Century America (Cornell University Press, 2004). She has held a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and been a senior fellow at the Institute of the Advanced Study of Religion at the University of Chicago.  

She was the first Knox College recipient of the Sears-Roebuck Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership in 1988 and was also awarded the Caterpillar Faculty Achievement award in 1999.  Her teaching ranges from the European Middle Ages to modern America, with particular interests in cultural history, Jewish Studies, gender, and comparative religion.

Kathie James Baillie Bonagura - Class of 1969

Kathie has distinguished herself as both songwriter and singer throughout a musical career that began long before she graduated from Amity and has continued long after. Kathie’s musical talents were nurtured by her parents, and while still in her teens, Kathie began performing at school functions and local cafés. Influenced by the folk music scene and the songwriting styles of such singers as Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, Kathie developed her own naturally heartfelt sound. In the early 1970s she formed the acoustic trio Bittersweet with her future husband Michael Bonagura and a longtime friend Alan LeBoeuf.

The group toured extensively along the East Coast, performed before sold-out audiences at legendary New York City clubs, and released their first single “Please Don’t Tell Me Goodnight” in 1975. In 1981, Kathie provided background harmony vocal on the song, “My First Taste of Texas,” which shot to number one in 1982 and gave Kathie her first taste of Nashville. Kathie and Michael continued to gain recognition as session singers and writers and sang background on a number of projects for such greats as Lynn Anderson and Randy Travis.

Later on, the group Ballie and the Boys, made up Kathie, Michael, and Alan, released numerous country albums from the late 80s to the mid 90s and scored a total of 10 Billboard Top 10 county hits.  The success of the group earned awards and nominations from the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music, and the TNN/Music City News Awards. In 1991, Kathie co-hosted the Music City News Awards and has co-hosted and performed on The Nashville Network’s Yesteryear show. Most recently Kathie has transitioned from lead singer to solo artist, and her album Love’s Funny That Way is a collection of songs about love in all its forms. 

Tony Falcone - Class of 1967

Tony has been a New England artist since 1974 and has painted professionally for the past twenty-three years. In 1977, he established his studio in a vintage dairy barn, located in Prospect, Connecticut, and it is there, as well as on location throughout the Northeast, that he creates his murals, canvases and portraits.

A self-taught artist, he specializes in custom designed commissioned artworks such as architectural and family and executive portraits, fine paintings and murals. Describing his style as realistic yet “imaginistic,” he has painted on location in Portugal, Italy, the Caribbean and France, where he exhibited his work in Avignon. His approach to some of his projects is almost spiritual. The concept for a calendar designed for 2000 was both celestial and nautical.

“We’re all one people on one planet,” says Falcone, “and that was the idea behind the calendar. It’s very meditative.” Major projects such as “Fast Track”, painted larger than life on the Sports Haven building off I-95 in New Haven, the New Haven skyline painted on the side of the Tyco building on Broadway, and a massive mural of the New Haven area painted for the Greater New Haven Convention and Visitors Bureau are just a few of  Falcone’s gigantic projects.

Mr. Falcone has exhibited abroad, as well as in the United States. He is a member of several arts organizations in Connecticut, including ARTSPACE, where he serves on the Executive Committee of the board of Directors. 

Martha Shelar Pope - Class of 1963

Martha has followed a career that reflects her interest in public policy and has included legislature, administration and political responsibility in the United States and abroad.  In recent years, Ms. Pope participated in U.S., British and Irish government initiatives to end decades of conflict in Northern Ireland. She served as deputy to Senator George J. Mitchell, Special Advisor to the President for Economic Initiatives in Northern Ireland, beginning in January 1995. From June 1996 through April 1998, Ms. Pope assisted the Office of Independent Chairmen, which conducted political negotiations in Northern Ireland.  Prior to her work in Northern Ireland, Ms. Pope served as a Constitutional officer of the United States Senate.

The United States Constitution provides that Senators elect officers to implement the functions of the Senate. Since 1789, the Senate has elected two officers, the Sergeant at Arms of the Senate who is responsible for Senate security, contracting and administrative services and the Secretary of the Senate who oversees the Senate’s legislative functions. The Senate elected Ms. Pope to each of these top positions where she served as Sergeant at Arms beginning in 1991 and Secretary of the Senate beginning in 1994. She is the only woman to have been Sergeant at Arms. Ms. Pope is a member of the Board of Trustees for Citizens Funds, a family of mutual funds, and is a Trustee for Hofstra University. In July 2000, she was appointed by the Secretary of the Interior to the board of the National Park Foundation.

Carol M. Presnick, MD - Class of 1971

Carol has been senior attending physician in the OB-GYN Department at Bridgeport Hospital since 1991 and is also currently the Medical Director for the City of Bridgeport Department of Health. Dr. Presnick attended the University of Connecticut from which she graduated Cum Laude, took her medical degree from Creighton University School of Medicine, interned at the Hospital of Saint Raphael, and did her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Bridgeport Hospital. She also served as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy at the National Health Service Center in Elkland, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Presnick has reached out not only into the communities where she lives and works, but has also touched the lives of individuals in the greater global community. She established the Presnick Family Scholarship at the University Of Connecticut School Of Nursing for individuals focusing on Community Nursing, is heavily involved in numerous clinics in Bridgeport that help the poor and medically underserved, and has made significant contributions to her hometown of Orange through numerous fund raisers, including donations of books and papers to the Orange Public Library.

Over the past eight years she has done pro bono medical surgery in the Dominican Republic and Haiti with her fellow doctors at Bridgeport Hospital and just this March headed a medical mission to Honduras for OB-GYN surgery through PRN Relief International.  

J. Kenneth Burkus, M.D. - Class of 1971

Kenneth graduated with honors from the Yale University School of Medicine in 1979. He completed his orthopaedic residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital and Newington Children’s Hospital in 1984. He also completed a clinical trauma fellowship with the AO/ASIF group in Switzerland and a spinal trauma and deformity fellowship at the Minnesota Spine Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In addition, he served as Active Duty Lieutenant Commander, Medical Corps and was attending Staff Orthopaedic Surgeon and Director of the Spin Clinic at the Naval Hospital in Oakland, California from 1984 to 1988.

He has held academic appointments at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine and the University of California Davis. Dr. Burkus has been the recipient of numerous awards among which are the A.M.A. Physician Recognition Award (1982, 1985, 1991), Orthopaedic Residents’ Award for Outstanding Critical Instructor, Scoliosis Research Society Traveling Fellowship Award.  

In fact, Dr. Burkus was one of the three spine surgeons in the United States selected by the Scoliosis Research Society to be their first traveling fellows. He has been involved in a number of research projects and published many articles in medical journals on spinal disorders. Dr. Burkus also has special interest and training in adult degenerative cervical, low back conditions, spinal fractures, and spinal cord injuries.  

Jonathan I. Ritvo, M.D. - Class of 1965

Jonathan is currently serving as the Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado. He also is the Director of the Addiction Psychiatry Residency Program at the University. Additionally, he is an Advanced Physician Specialist at the Denver Medical Center and also serves as the Medical Director for the Inpatient Psychiatry Service and the Substance Disorders Services, Outpatient Behavioral Health Services.

Dr. Ritvo is a published author of numerous articles. He has served as the Chair of the American Psychiatric Association and was presented with its Distinguished Fellow Award. Dr. Ritvo is a Cum Laude graduate of Harvard College, 1969 and a graduate of Harvard Medical School, 1973. Dr. Ritvo also served as an Assistant in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and completed his residency at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, in Psychiatry.

He has served on national committees on the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. Additionally, he has made numerous presentations at the Grand Rounds, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Colorado State Hospital, and American Civil Liberties Union Conference on Mental Health Law. 

David Lincoln Rabinowitz, PhD - Class of 1979

David is a research scientist at Yale's Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics specializing in the construction of giant digital cameras for telescopes and in surveying the sky for Earth threatening asteroids, comets, planets, supernovae, and distant galaxies. His work relates to the origin of the solar system and also to the nature of the mysterious dark energy driving the accelerated expansion of the universe. He is credited as co-discoverer of the new population of dwarf planets in the outer solar system, and therefore partly responsible for Pluto's sad demotion from planetary status.  

Dr. Rabinowitz earned a B.S. in Physics in from Yale in 1983 and went on to the University of  Chicago for a Ph.D. in Physics (1988). He worked at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona, the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology, before coming to Yale in 1999. Dr. Rabinowitz’s discoveries have been cited and described in numerous articles and scientific journals. 

Dr. Jonathan M. Rothberg - Class of 1981

Jonathan is the founder of CuraGen Corporation, and founder and Chairman of 454 Life Sciences, The Rothberg Institute for Childhood Diseases, and the co-founder and Chairman of RainDance Technologies and Clarifi Corporation. He earned a B.S. in chemical engineering with an option in biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.S., M.Phil, and Ph.D. in biology from Yale University. Dr. Rothberg has been highly recommended for his achievement in science and medicine. He was named an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year and is the recipient of The Wall Street Journal’s Gold Medal for Innovation for his invention of 454 sequencing, and The Irvington Institute’s Corporate Leadership Award in Science.

He has appeared on CNBC for his pioneering work in the field of genomics medicine and his scientific work has been featured on the covers of leading scientific journals including Cell, Science, and Nature. While at CuraGen, Dr. Rothberg developed a series of new medicines, now in over 14 human clinical trials, for the treatment of a wide range of cancers.  His invention of a new way to sequence DNA on a chip, first motivated by his son’s visit to the emergency room, has ushered in the era of personal medicine, and is now in use at major pharmaceutical companies, universities and medical centers around the world.  

Most recently he initiated the Neanderthal Genome project and was invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland as a technology Pioneer. Dr. Rothberg is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, and serves on the board of trustees of Carnegie Mellon University. 

SCOTT KLEIN - Class of 1988

Since graduating from Amity in 1988 and attending college, Scott has worked at the intersection of journalism and technology.  He worked at The Nation Magazine for a decade, where he helped establish its early web presence. Starting in 2008, he was one of the first employees at ProPublica, an investigative newsroom in New York, which has won five Peabody Awards, eight George Polk Awards, two DuPont Columbia Awards, and three Emmy Awards, among many others.  

He now sits on the masthead as a Deputy Managing Editor. He’s a pioneer in the fields of data journalism and interactive journalism, having founded a team made up of reporters who code.  He also founded an organization called Document Cloud, which forever changed how the news industry analyzes and presents primary source documents. It is used in hundreds of newsrooms around the world and contains millions of pages of documents. Scott lives with his wife of 20 years and two teenage children, though he takes frequent trips back to Orange, where he grew up, to visit his parents and brothers.

ROB LEONARD - class of 1987

Rob was frequently seen casually strolling into some hallowed classroom of Amity Regional High School, a few minutes late with a cup of take-out coffee in hand. Due to his ubiquitous sense of humor, good nature, and limitless likability, the teachers just chuckled and told him to take a seat.  Due to the amount of fun he was having senior year, Rob squeaked by and graduated with mediocre grades in 1987. Rob went on to Southern Connecticut State University, where he majored in Communications.  

Rob got his first taste of working in the alcohol business at Amity Wine at the ripe age of 16.  Rob continued to work there full-time throughout most of his college career. In 1992, a fresh-faced Rob began working at New Haven Brewing Company while pursuing his dream job as a comedy writer for the “Late Show with David Letterman.”  Rob got an interview, but due to a hiring freeze, it was not meant to be.  Or, perhaps Rob just wasn’t funny as he thought.  

In the beginning, Rob was putting empty beer bottles on a conveyor belt, but it turns out Rob was a quick study and became the assistant brewer.  Within two years, Rob was the head brewer.  Rob discovered he loved the beer industry.  Rob worked at Saratoga Brew Pub in New York and Hyannis Port Brewing on Cape Cod.  There was a stint at John Harvard’s Brew House in both Westport and Manchester, CT.  In 1999, Rob was hired as the Director of Brewing at New England Brewing Co. in Norwalk, CT.  A couple of years later, the owners were looking to sell, and an eager and slightly naive Rob Leonard leaped at the chance to buy the name.  He sold off most of the equipment and moved the location to a small warehouse space at 7 Selden Street in Woodbridge, CT in 2002.

As it turned out, people weren’t very interested in supporting their local brewery at first.  It was a ten-year struggle trying to make ends meet before NEBCO. earned a reputation for making stellar beer.  Rob began looking for a bigger space.  In 2012, he moved the operation across the street to its current location at 175 Amity Road in Woodbridge.  You may have even seen Rob driving a forklift across Amity Road behind a shiny, silver fermentation tank.  The brewery has once again outgrown its existing home and there are plans afoot for an expansion.

NEBCO was the third craft brewery in the United States to package beer in cans.  Rob always was a man ahead of his time.  Cans are superior to bottles because they keep the air and light out, the two primary enemies of beer.  Sea Hag, the flagship IPA, is the number one selling craft beer in Connecticut.  It out-sells many other CT brewery brands combined.  To give back, NEBCO has sponsored many charitable causes in the community, including the Closer to Free Ride, which benefits Yale’s Smilow Cancer Hospital. Currently, Team Craft Beer has raised half a million dollars and counting.   And to think it all started with a chronically tardy Rob Leonard cracking a joke at ARHS!

MARK A. LEVINE - class of 1988

Mark is a husband, step-father, tennis player, traveler, and engineer with Chrysler.  Diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) at the age of two, Mark grew up watching his younger brother, David (Amity ‘91), struggle and ultimately lose his battle with CF at the age of 21.  After graduating with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, PA., Mark became very involved with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF).  Speaking and fundraising in Michigan and Indiana including chairing the successful Guys and Dolls Auction, in Indianapolis.  

Mark has been on the board of the CF Roundtable, a quarterly publication for adults with CF, and is currently on the University of Michigan CF patient advisory council, as well as serving as the board chair for the Michigan and NW Ohio CFF Chapter.  Mark is also a CF ambassador, raising public awareness through speaking engagements and fundraisers.  Mark is annually a top fundraiser for the Great Strides Walk and the Cycle for Life Bike Ride.

While at Amity, Mark was Captain of the boy’s tennis team and President of his youth group. At Lehigh, Mark was a Residence Hall Advisor and President of the Hillel Society.  Mark moved to Michigan after graduating from Lehigh to start his career at Chrysler.  Although the name of the company changed many times (Daimler Chrysler, Cerberus, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and now Stellantis), Mark has remained with the company for over 27 years.  Marks roles have varied from a resident engineer at a transmission plant in Indiana, where Mark earned his Master Black belt in reactive problem solving, to quality and reliability, chief engineer, and most recently manager of the advanced transmission and driveline team, helping move Stellantis into the age of electrification.

Married for eighteen years, Mark has two step-children, Brook, 26, and Adam, 24.  He works out every morning before work, is an avid tennis player, and enjoys biking, hiking, and traveling.  Mark has recently developed a love of kayaking.  Mark and his wife Joelle, a mental health therapist, love to travel and spend time with their Shih Tzu BamBam.

MICHAEL SLOMSKY - class of 1991

Mike has been involved in Trading and Portfolio Management for the past 25 Years.  Michael has traded Currencies, Interest Rates, Bonds, Commodities, Futures, and Stocks, and is considered an options expert in all of them. Michael currently trades his portfolio. Michael currently spends most of his time on personal trading, as well as financial consulting for various organizations.  Michael is currently the Vice-Chairman of 914Cares.  914Cares is a non-profit organization that has a goal to eradicate poverty in Westchester County, NY.  Michael has helped grow 914Cares from a grassroots organization to one that currently helps thousands of families in Westchester in areas including, food insecurity, clothing, shelter, and education.

Michael received his BA in Management from Rutgers University in 1995. Michael worked for Bankers Trust in investment management from 1995-1997, with Honors. He also received an MBA in Finance and Economics from NYU Stern in 1999, with Honors. He spent 12 years at JPMorgan, where he became one of the youngest managing directors at JPM in 2008. He started on the G7 currency desk in 1999.  

At JPMorgan, Michael pioneered a new way to manage market-making books, where he combined all products of each country into one book, instead of splitting risk into product categories.  This allowed Michael to increase the revenue in Brazil from around $10 million to a high of $137 million in 2007.  Michael went on to run the Latam America trading group and was responsible for $487 million worth of personal P/L between 2002 and 2011.  

Michael has managed risk through many financial crises, in many countries, and has managed to make positive P/L every year that he has traded. In 2012, Michael transitioned to a portfolio manager at Graham Capital, where he managed a $330 Mio USD portfolio. He ran a Global Macro Portfolio, which specialized in Latam America but traded in all G7 currencies as well.  At Graham, Michael expanded boundaries by introducing Graham to different types of vanilla and exotic options.

In 2013 Michael decided to run his own money and investments and has been doing so ever since.  Along with some financial consulting, serving on various boards, and coaching, Michael has been self-employed since 2013. 

GABRIELLE  L. CORRADINO - class of 2007

Gabrielle is a current PhD candidate at North Carolina State University working on her degree in biological oceanography. Gabrielle has been awarded several grants and fellowships during her graduate schooling, including The Department of the Interior's Southeast Climate Science Fellowship.

In addition to laboratory work, Gabrielle spends time in the field on oceanic research vessels, works as a National Geographic Explorer and participates in science outreach through her professional Instagram account MarchofthePlankton. She is set to defend her thesis in the winter of 2019 and will move to Washington, DC as a Knauss Fellow to contribute to governmental science policy and to work as a Early Career Leadership Fellow with National Geographic.

SUSANNE M. DUFFY 

Susanne taught at the Amity Regional School District from 1969 through 2007 and earned her degrees from Southern Connecticut State University, The University of Connecticut and Fairfield University.  From 1982 through 1992, she worked as the history department chairperson. She served as an adjunct professor at Southern Connecticut State University and Quinnipiac University from 1992 to 2017.

Susan authored, co-authored, or supervised additions or changes to the curriculum that included Environmental Science, Russian, Asian, and Latin American History, American Ethnic History, Critical Issues, Psychology, Sociology, U.S. History I and II, and adaptations for Advanced Placement and special education needs.  Duffy participated in numerous activities including Debate Club, Model UN, Youth and Government, Project Vote, Islamic-American Club, PTSA executive committee, district-wide committees and many sporting events and dances.

As a result of all the opportunities presented to her by the Amity community, especially her students and peers, Susan was honored with two yearbook dedications, the Amity Teacher of the Year Award, the PTSA Teacher of the Year Award, the General Electric Star Award, the Dartmouth College Award, and the American Legion Government Teacher Award.  She was named a finalist for the Quinnipiac University Celebration of Excellence Award.

Any success that Duffy achieved was the result of the efforts of many people:  Frank, Rita and Mike Duffy – the family that supported everything she did; Dr. Thomas Farnham – the professor who encouraged all her academic efforts; Kathy Coords- the teacher who taught her how to be an Amity teacher; Joe Proffitt and Leo Scillia – the history chairmen who taught her so much about leadership; the wonderful history department faculty who were always models of professionalism and great friendship; and her Amity students who truly deserve this award for all the motivation, encouragement, and humor they provided everyday.  

MICHAEL T. EFFLEY - class of 1988

Michael graduated from the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1992 and was commissioned as an Ensign in the U.S. Coast Guard.  His first tour of duty was aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter TAHOMA (WMEC-908).  Mike served as the ship's Weapons Officer and Maritime Law Enforcement Officer, responsible for the training and operation of the ship's weapons systems as well as the training and execution surrounding all law enforcement activities (ship boardings).  Mike made several deployments to the Caribbean Sea on counter narcotic missions.

In 1994, Mike was assigned to a Naval command in Washington, D.C.  While in D.C., Mike earned his M.B.A. from the George Washington University (graduating in December 1996).  He was also chosen in 1994 to serve at the White House as a Military Social Aide.  In this capacity, Mike was detailed to the White House frequently to assist President Clinton and his staff with State Dinners, dignitary visits, and public events. In February 2002, Mike reported to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.  After receiving his FBI badge and credentials in May 2002, he was assigned to the Miami Field Office where he spent most of his time on the Colombian Drug squad.  

While working as a case agent, Mike worked on cases that resulted in the arrest and extradition of numerous leaders and members of drug cartels and terrorist organizations.  While assigned to Miami, Mike spent five years on the FBI SWAT Team. During this time, he was deployed on dozens of high-risk arrests and missions across the U.S. and overseas. In 2012, Mike was selected to lead the FBI's Safe Streets Task Force and Gang Squad in Washington, D.C.  As squad supervisor, he led a team of 17 FBI agents, Deputy U.S. Marshals, Homicide Detectives, and Drug Detectives in targeting the most violent offenders and neighborhoods in our nation's capital.

From 2015 through 2016, Mike supervised New Agent and New Analyst Trainee classes at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia.  Here, he oversaw and evaluated the students' performance and aptitude in a variety of developed and provided a variety of training to students and visiting dignitaries.  In January 2017, Mike was selected to lead the FBI's Corporate Fraud and Intellectual Property Rights squad in Washington, D.C.  

NIC NOVICKI - class of 2001

Nick is an actor, comedian and producer who has performed on six continents. His television credits include: Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, Alone Together, Loudermilk, Jack and Triumph, The Neighbors, Austin and Ally, Private Practice and Drop Dead Diva. He has appeared in several movies, including L!fe Happens, November Rule, The Last 5 Years, Boston Girls and Breaking Wind and will soon be seen in the upcoming Dead Ant.

Nic has produced several feature films, television pilots and web series for companies including Sony, CBS, Air China, Maxim and Universal and is an active member on the Producers Guild of America’s Diversity Committee. Nic wrote for the CBS Diversity Showcase and has also written and directed several short films including A Little Broke, which was acquired by the TV station Shorts HD (now the DISH Network). As a stand-up comedian, Nic has performed on AXS Gotham Comedy Live and traveled the world, including several tours through Armed Forces Entertainment, performing for troops in Kosovo, England, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, France, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Portugal and Spain.  

Nic is a board member of Easterseals Southern California (ESSC) and the founder and director of the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge. While 57 million Americans have disabilities, they are the most under-represented population in entertainment and media. As someone with a disability himself, Nic launched the Film Challenge in 2013 in response to the under-representation of talent with disabilities both in front of and behind the camera to give aspiring filmmakers the opportunity to showcase their work and provide them with meaningful exposure.

In 2017, Novicki joined forces with Easterseals— the nation’s leading nonprofit supporting people and families with disabilities— to expand the event, now known as the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge. During the Challenge, registered filmmakers— with and without disabilities— are given a span of 55 hours over the designated weekend to write and produce short films (three-to-five minutes) that Help Change the Way We View Disability, which are then judged in four award categories— Best Film, Best Filmmaker, Best Actor and Best Awareness Campaign— by a noted and diverse group of entertainment industry talent. Nic attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the school of Film and Television, UCB Theatre, and Temple University’s Fox School of Business. He resides in Hollywood, California.

JACK SANTUCCI - class of 2001

Jack is one of many members of an old and growing movement for more inclusive elections. After graduating from Amity Regional Senior High School in 2001, he studied social science at McGill University, and then moved to the District of Columbia with a suit bag, pocketknife, and unpaid internship.

While in DC, he worked in election and campaign finance reform, international democracy assistance, private philanthropy, and mixology. Along the way, he earned a M.A. and Ph.D. in Government at Georgetown University. At Amity, Santucci was active in student council (under Len Marazzi), The Trident (under Marilyn Bonomi), and The Oracle (under Nancy Goss). He was a founding officer of the ItalianAmerican Club, which raised money for the National World War II Memorial (under Bob Catalde).

At junior high in Bethany, he played Senator Jack S. Phogbound in Carol Partelow’s 1997 production of Lil' Abner. With lifelong friend Dave Stevens, he volunteered at the Bethany Community Garden, run by Dennis Hunt. Santucci lives in Philadelphia, where he teaches Political Science at Drexel University. A 1998 trip to British Parliament (with Roger Goss) fed his budding interest in comparative democratic institutions.

Early exposure to AppleSoft BASIC (via his uncle, Mike Lavorgna) prepared him to learn statistical programming. He grew up in Woodbridge, where his Eagle project for Troop 63 was to sand and color-code each of the town's 93 fire hydrants (with help from Milad Fatenejad).

ESTHER PAN SLOANE - class of 1993

Esther graduated from Amity in 1993 after playing four years of varsity volleyball, editing the school paper, and serving as YMCA Youth Governor of Connecticut. She attended Stanford University and graduated with honors in both International Relations and English.

After starting her career at the Anchorage Daily News in Anchorage, Alaska, she worked as journalist in print, radio, and magazines, including at Newsweek in New York and South Africa (where she earned a Master’s Degree in Theater and Performance on a Fulbright Fellowship) and Radio Free Europe in Prague, Czech Republic.

Esther joined the U.S. State Department as a diplomat in 2006 and served in China, the United Kingdom, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York. She joined the United Nations Capital Development Fund, a UN aid agency focused on making finance work for the world’s poorest countries in 2016. 

JOHN BENCIVENGO, JR - class of 1982

John, commonly known as "Chef John," is the owner of the U.S.S. Chowder Pot III in Branford, CT as of June 1, 2017. His determination, passion and hard work, which are traits that he possessed throughout his entire life, always came through in his cooking. Customers return not only for the great food but because “Chef John” cares about each individual and their experience. Anyone who knows “Chef John” knows that he is a genuine, light-hearted man who puts others before himself.

John’s culinary journey began when he started working at the Grassy Hill Country Club as a dishwasher (1974-1975). From there, he went on to work at Laurel View Country Club as a line cook (1975-1977); though the biggest step forward in his culinary career was at the New Haven Lawn Club where he became the Sous-chef (1977-1979). While he was working there, he made the time to attend the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, NY (1977-1978). Only one year after the completion of his schooling, he got the job at the U.S.S. Chowder Pot in Clinton and became one of the founding members of the CT Shoreline Culinary Association (1980-2000).

When Chowder Pot III opened in Branford in November 1980, Jon Smith (the preceding owner) asked Chef John to be the executive chef at the Branford location at the young age of 22. He worked there until 1985. John took a slight leave from the restaurant when he became the executive chef at the Trust House Forte in Stamford (1985-1987). He just couldn’t stay away though, so in 1988, he made his return to “The Pot” where he remained the executive chef until the day he became the owner.  

John married his high school sweetheart Margaret Amadeo Bencivengo. They met at Amity High School.  John was from Orange, and Margaret was from Bethany, and they moved to Bethany in 1993 where they have been living ever since.  Even with all the responsibilities on his plate as an executive chef, he still made the time be a great father to five children: Catherine, Johnny, Nicole, Peter, and Dolores. His large Italian family is growing with two grandchildren, Amalia and Vincenzo; two sons in-law, Christopher and Brandon; and one daughter in-law, Stacy. His family spends their time raising money for different charities from vendor events to paint night at his restaurant, as well as donating time, cooking for organizations like the Columbus House on Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas morning.

The Chowder Pot has become a second home to John and the customers a second family. All of his children work with him and want him to succeed. He loves creating new dishes and sharing them with everyone by putting his dedication and perseverance into his restaurant. For great food cooked with passion and love, come see “Chef John” at the Chowder Pot III in Branford, CT.  

STEVEN A. CONN - class of 2000

Steven is an associate athletics director and Yale’s Director of Sports Publicity, has worked in college athletics for 34 years, beginning with his undergraduate days at the University of Miami. He currently oversees the publicity of a 35-sport program that includes TV, radio, photography, a digital broadcast channel and the school’s official website.  The primary contact for the Yale football, hockey, lacrosse and heavyweight crew teams, Conn also serves as a member of the department’s senior staff.

His role includes TV and radio commentating, writing, media relations and mentoring students, which he also does as an advisor for Yale students at Morse College.  In addition to the work on campus and traveling with Yale teams, he assists the NCAA with championship events and has helped run Frozen Fours, Final Fours, regionals and lacrosse national championships. With Yale teams, he has been on the support staff for national championships in hockey (2013), lacrosse (2018) and crew (2017, 18). Conn, a Woodbridge, CT resident whose introduction to college athletics was taking photos as a 14-year-old on the sidelines of Yale football games, enjoyed his initial and brief foray into college football outside the Ivy League as a walk-on player at Miami in 1983.

The 1985 Miami graduate did an internship at the University of South Alabama Athletics Department the following year and then found his way back to Connecticut, where he began to help at Yale while working for the newspaper, Business Times. Conn, who has been a TV and radio commentator for numerous networks since coming to the campus, began his Yale career in 1986 as the assistant sports publicity director and took over that office in 1993, the same year he earned a Master’s in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of New Haven.  The 1981 Amity High School graduate and recipient of the John Janenda Scholarship played basketball and baseball for the Spartans. He married classmate, Emily Resnik, in 1993, and they have sons, Jeremy (Union College ’20) and Jordan (University of New Hampshire ’22), who were Amity student-athletes in the classes of 2015 and 2018, respectively.

TARA LEIGH KNIGHT - class of 1983

Tara is the founding member and senior partner of the firm of Knight & Cerritelli L.L.C. located in New Haven, Connecticut. Attorney Knight specializes in criminal defense law and is board-certified in criminal trial advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. The Expanded Governing Board of Yale Law School has appointed her Clinical Tutor in Law at the Yale Law School yearly since 2012. From 2011 to 2014, she was one of the directors of the National Board of Legal Specialty Certification, which is the governing board overseeing the certification of lawyers as Board Certified throughout the nation in criminal law and other areas of specialty.

In 2012, she was inducted into the American Board of Criminal Lawyers. She is rated “AV” by Martindale Hubbell; its highest rating. Her extensive criminal litigation background includes trial and appellate experience in both state and federal courts. She has tried numerous cases to verdict including defending individuals charged with: Capital Murder; robbery; assault; sexual assault; narcotics; weapons violations; computer and pornography crimes; embezzlement; marijuana; and domestic violence.

Attorney Knight is admitted to practice before the Connecticut State and Federal Courts, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. She is one the first women ever to be listed in the publication, The Best Lawyers in America, as an outstanding criminal law practitioner in Connecticut. She has been listed in The Best Lawyers In America yearly since 2003. In May 2016 Attorney Knight was awarded the honor of being the only female attorney in Connecticut listed as a “Best Lawyer” for Criminal Defense Practice in the Spring 2016 issue of Best Lawyers Business Edition.

Attorney Knight has been named a “Connecticut Super Lawyer ” yearly since 2006. She is listed as one of the top 50 women lawyers in New England in the 2017 edition of New England Magazine’s annual listing of top attorneys. Additionally, she was designated as one of the Top 25 Women Lawyers in the state 2007, 2011, 2012 and 2016 and one of the Top 50 Lawyers in the state in 2006 by Connecticut Magazine. She was listed in New York Magazine in its 2006 through 2016 editions as one of the best criminal defense lawyers in the New York area. In 2009, Irish America magazine and the Irish Voice Newspaper named her to their “Legal 100” list- a listing of the leading figures in the legal profession across North America. Attorney Knight taught Criminal Procedure at the University of Connecticut Law School during the Fall Semester 2010. Additionally, she was an Adjunct Professor of Criminal Law at Quinnipiac University from 1999-2001 and has been a guest lecturer for classes at Yale University Law School, Quinnipiac School of Law, and the University of New Haven and has participated as a panelist and/or lecturer at numerous seminars and conferences sponsored by various bar associations, law schools, television and radio programs, colleges and other organizations.

She is a past-president of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (20052006). Tara is a legal analyst for Channel 8 WTNH news in New Haven Connecticut where she is featured weekly on their “Ask the Lawyer” program. She was appointed by the Judges of the Superior Court in Connecticut to serve as a member of the grievance/ethics panel for the Ansonia/Milford Judicial District (2006-2009, 2009-2012). In 2007, the Mayor of New Haven, John DeStefano, Jr., selected her to be a member of an independent review board which was formed to examine the policies, procedures and structures of the New Haven Police Department in the wake of a well-publicized corruption scandal. She has been a guest commentator on The Today Show, Court TV, now TruTV, since 1997 and has been invited to comment as an expert on criminal law on MSNBC, HLN, CNN and Fox News. Additionally, she has been featured in two A & E Network Productions and on Court TV’s “The System.” She and Attorney Hugh F. Keefe are frequent guests on New Haven’s popular morning radio program, “Chaz and AJ in the Morning” (99.1 WPLR).

Her publications include “How Many Fingers Do You See?” (Connecticut Law Tribune, November 2002) and “Criminal Justice Model A Costly Mistake,” (Connecticut Law Tribune, January 2012) and “Reigning in the Mavericks,” (Connecticut Law Tribune, January 2013). Attorney Knight is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association and New Haven County Bar Association. In 2001, she was inducted into the Connecticut Bar Foundation. She is an active member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. She has been an executive committee member of the Criminal Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association since 1995. She is a member of the NORML (National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws) legal committee and FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums).

Attorney Knight is a graduate of Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut and Suffolk University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts. She also completed the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia. Ms. Knight resides in New Haven with her husband, Hugh Keefe, who is the senior and managing partner of Lynch, Traub, Keefe and Errante PC in New Haven, Connecticut.

RICHARD KREVOLIN - class of 1982

Richard is an award-winning screenwriter, author, playwright, and professor. A graduate of Yale University, Richard went on to earn a Master’s degree in screenwriting at UCLA's School of Cinema-Television, and a Master's degree in playwriting and fiction from USC. For 15 years, from 1989 to 2003, Professor Krevolin taught both undergraduate and graduate screenwriting classes at what many consider the number one film school in the world, USC Cinema/TV School. He planned and led courses on basic and advanced fundamentals of visual storytelling, story structure, and screenwriting.

Richard also taught English Composition and Writing Across the Genres (Playwriting, Fiction and Poetry). Over 20,000 screenwriters have been taught by Richard in Los Angeles, CA and around the world. Under his guidance, his students have gone on to sell film scripts and TV shows to Universal, Fox, Paramount, Dreamworks SKG and numerous other big studios and production companies.

Richard has also taught at UCLA Film School, Pepperdine University, the University of Redlands, and Ithaca College. These days, Richard conducts private writer’s workshops and storytelling seminars throughout the world: England, France, Spain, Brazil, India, etc. In addition, he has conducted workshops and seminars at the Maui Writer’s Conference, Selling To Hollywood, The Heart of Film Festival, The Chicago Film Festival, The Indianapolis Writers’ Center, The Las Vegas Screenwriter’s Conference, The Surrey Writer’s Conference, and The Reno Film Festival. Finally, he is a star speaker who has taught seminars at the world famous Screenwriting Expo. Three of these seminars were so popular that they videotaped them and they are now best-selling DVD’s.

He is the author of Screenwriting From The Soul (St. Martins Press), Pilot Your Life (PrenticeHall), How To Adapt Anything Into A Screenplay (Wiley & Sons), Screenwriting in the Land of Oz, and The Hook: How to Share Your Brand's Unique Story to Engage Customers, Boost Sales, and Achieve Heartfelt Success, all of which are still in print and are used at film schools and universities across America.

As a screenwriter and a playwright, Richard was a finalist in the Nicholl Fellowship Screenwriting Award and Chesterfield Screenwriting Award. He also was a finalist for the $500,000 Kingman Screenwriting Award and the Klasky-Csupo Writing for Children Contest. He won the USC One-Act Play Festival for his comedy, Love is Like Velcro. His play, Trotsky’s Garden, was a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights' Conference. His one-man show, Boychik, a finalist in the HBO New Writer’s Project, was a huge hit at the Santa Monica Playhouse, running for five sold-out months and other awards. He wrote, directed, and produced the PBS documentary, Making Light in Terezin. He was also one of the writers of the documentary, Fiddler on the Roof: 30 Years of Tradition. It opened OffBroadway at Theater Four in New York City in 1997 and is still touring the country. He also received a Valley Theatre League nomination for best director and best play for his one-man musical, RebbeSoul-O.

His play, King Levine opened in February 1999 at the Odyssey Theater under the direction of Joseph Bologna and after receiving rave reviews, transferred to The Tiffany. It was also nominated for an Ovation Award as Best Adaptation. In 2001, Richard had two one person plays open in Los Angeles The Lemony Fresh Scent of Diva Monsoon (starring Ruth DeSosa) at the Rose Alley and Seltzer Man (starring David Proval of The Sopranos) at the Tiffany. His plays have been performed with Ed Asner, Allen Arbus, Jean Smart, Mackenzie Phillips, and Richard Kline. In 2009, his play, Lansky opened off-Broadway at the St. Luke’s Theater and was nominated for an Outer Critics Award.

His play, The Gospel According to Jerry, premiered at the Minnesota Jewish Theater in April 2011 and was then produced at the New Theater in Miami. Richard has several screenplays under option and in development including: Safer (Screenplay) under option to Tom DeSanto Prods. (X-men, Apt Pupil, Battlestar Galactica, Transformers, etc.) and Jaka (Film Script) under option to Falcon Ent. He just co-wrote and directed a feature length comedy, ATTACHMENTS, starring Academy Award nominated actress, Katharine Ross.

His consulting work has affected hundreds of TV commercials produced all over the world, many of which have won awards including Golden Lions at Cannes and The People Choice Award in China. In addition, he conducts writer’s workshops and corporate storytelling seminars throughout the world. He also is the Head Narrative Consultant for the Asia based consulting/consumer research firm, IDStats.org.

JESSE L. SENDROFF - class of 2000

Jesse graduated magna cum laude from Quinnipiac University in 2006. He went on to receive his Juris Doctorate from Western New England University School of Law in 2009 and was later admitted to the Connecticut Bar. During law school, Jesse served as a Student Law Clerk at the United States District Court in Hartford, CT.  

After law school, Jesse worked as a Congressional Liaison at the United States Department of Energy, where he managed outreach to the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Energy and Water Development.  From 2011 to 2013, Jesse worked in multiple roles supporting the re-election and inauguration of President Barack Obama. These roles included working as Director of Compliance for the 2012 Democratic National Convention Committee, Voter Protection Attorney during the final months of the campaign, and Director of Compliance for the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee.  

Jesse was later appointed to serve in the Obama White House as a Senior Advance Lead where he worked as an Aide to the President. In this position, he traveled to countless domestic and international locations to manage the operational planning and execution of Presidential visits. During these trips, Jesse would regularly brief the President.  

On several occasions Jesse was selected to serve as the head of the United States traveling delegation abroad. In this role, he liaised with foreign governments and stakeholders as the Chief White House Negotiator in order to execute the logistical objectives of the Executive Office of the President and the National Security Council.

After leaving the White House, Jesse moved to New York City and was appointed to serve as Director of Advance and Special Assistant to Mayor Bill de Blasio. He was additionally named the interim Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Special Projects and Community Events. He currently oversees all of the Mayor’s public-facing events at Gracie Mansion and throughout New York City. 

DR. CHRISTOPHER A. CAPUANO - class of 1975

Christopher became Fairleigh Dickinson University’s eighth president on July 1, 2016, following the retirement of President Sheldon Drucker. Dr. Capuano previously held a series of leadership positions at the University over a period of more than 25 years, most recently as University Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.

As University Provost, Dr. Capuano provided important decision making in identifying and appointing a strong leadership team in the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, which resulted in consistent enrollment growth and full accreditation with the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. In addition, he was instrumental in securing a large gift to support the University’s new Daniel and Martina Lewis Center for Healthcare Innovation and Technology.

Moreover, he was the driving force in developing the University’s 2015-2020 strategic plan, working with President Drucker, the Board of Trustees, and faculty and staff across the University, including at the University’s two international campuses in Canada and England. Working closely with the Vice Provost for Academic and International Affairs, the Associate Provost for Educational Resources and Assessment, the College Deans, and the Academic Policies and Research Committee of the Faculty Senate, Dr. Capuano has led much-needed changes to the University’s nationally recognized University Core program, the adoption of the Individual Development and Educational Assessment (IDEA) system for both instructional and course assessment and development, and important changes to requirements for completion of baccalaureate degrees at the University, including the establishment of uniform general education requirements across similar programs.

Prior to becoming University Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Capuano served as Vice Provost for International Affairs. In that position, he provided oversight of the University’s Office of Global Partnerships and worked closely with the University’s Office of Global Learning to facilitate study abroad and other international initiatives. Moreover, he led the development of the University’s new campus in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, providing oversight of academic and non-academic responsibilities, including accreditation of the campus and all its programs, the hiring of faculty and staff, developing and monitoring the campus’s budget, and ensuring that the campus met the objectives outlined in its strategic plan.

In addition, Dr. Capuano served as the Vancouver Campus Provost for a year during a critical transition period. As Director of the School of Psychology for nearly 15 years and a former doctoral faculty member in the University’s Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology and Psy.D. Program in School Psychology — the second of which he helped to develop, Dr. Capuano provided important leadership in developing the school into one of the largest and more prestigious schools at the University.

His many accomplishments in this position included establishment of the postdoctoral certificate program in clinical psychopharmacology and its transition to a postdoctoral Master of Science degree program — a program that has earned national recognition and is currently only one of just a few programs recognized by the American Psychological Association for postdoctoral training in clinical psychopharmacology.

As a former faculty member and biopsychologist by training, Dr. Capuano introduced and taught key compulsory courses in both doctoral programs in the School of Psychology. His research included the design, implementation and supervision of experiments in neuropsychopharmacology and health psychology, from planning and evaluating new research to working on the development of compounds and behavioral interventions for clinical use. Moreover, he supervised numerous doctoral dissertations and master’s theses and has published numerous abstracts and research articles with colleagues and former students in various scientific journals.

Dr. Capuano earned his Ph.D. in Biopsychology and two master’s degrees from the Graduate and University Center of the City University of New York, as well as his B.S. in Biological Sciences from Purdue University.

SCOTT FEINBERG - class of 2004

Scott is one of Hollywood's most widely read and respected entertainment journalists. While studying at Amity, Feinberg — in addition to serving as editor in-chief of the 9th grade newspaper The Amity Oracle and playing on the varsity tennis team all four years (they won a state championship when he was a senior) — fell in love with classic movies and film history. This unusual interest, which he developed by renting videos from the Woodbridge Town Library and interviewing survivors of Hollywood's Golden Age, led him to study and become skilled at forecasting the results of the annual Academy Awards.

Coverage of his activities in the New Haven Register and on WTNH-8 spurred local interest in his assessments, which, in turn, motivated him to start one of the first blogs devoted to awards coverage shortly after he began his studies at Brandeis University. Feinberg's blog found a large following and, in 2008, upon his college graduation, he was hired by the Los Angeles Times to provide the same sort of coverage for them. In 2011, he joined The Hollywood Reporter, one of the two trade papers read by everyone in Hollywood, as their awards columnist, and he further established himself as a leading expert — not only about the Oscars, but also the Emmys and Tonys.

Feinberg's abilities as a writer, analyst, prognosticator, moderator and interviewer of legends of yesteryear (such as Mickey Rooney, Olivia de Havilland, Kirk Douglas, Luise Rainer and Jerry Lewis) and today (such as Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Seinfeld, Meryl Streep and Will Smith), have earned him numerous accolades and the highest regard of colleagues, competitors and entertainment lovers around the world.  

He wishes to thank the Amity teachers, coaches and administrators who encouraged him to follow his dreams, as well as his friends and especially his family — father Michael, mother Pamela, sister Debra, brother Eric and grandmother Helen — without whom none of this would have been possible.

KATHLEEN GALLIGAN - class of 1968

Kathleen has been painting since the early 1980s and has exhibited her work in California, Philadelphia, New York, Maine and France. Originally trained and educated in the field of Illustration at Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts), Kathleen worked as an archaeological illustrator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology. Throughout, she maintained her focus on painting, primarily working in the tactile and sensual medium of soft pastels. More recently she has increased her work in oils, using both landscape and abstracts as her subject.  

Her work in pastels has garnered praise and media attention. Her paintings were included in the book The Art of Maine in Winter, by Carl Little. Later, her work was honored with two 6-page articles in The Pastel Journal and most recently her inclusion in a French book, titled 40 Maitres du Pastel/les grandes maitres du pastel 2016. On the cover of that book, one of her paintings was displayed with two other artists. Among the many highlights of her career, two residencies awarded to Kathleen have given her both the confidence and time needed to help in her development as a professional painter: a month long residency at the prestigious artists’ colony, YADDO in Saratoga Springs, NY, and two weeks at Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, ME.

Her work is in the collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, and the Musee du Pastels, Sainte-Aulaye, France, as well as several corporate collections. Currently, her work is represented by Greenhut Galleries, Portland, ME, Littlefield Gallery, Winterharbor, ME and The George Marshall Store Gallery, York, ME.

SCOTT SAVITT - class of 1981

Scott is a former foreign correspondent for The Los Angeles Times and United Press International in Beijing. After graduating from Duke University, he became one of the first Americans to study in the PRC and live with a Chinese family. He covered the Tiananmen Square protests and subsequent military crackdown in 1989. In 1994 he founded Beijing Scene, China’s first independent weekly newspaper. In 2003 he published China Now magazine.

His articles have been published in The Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and many other publications. He’s the founding editor of the award winning Contexts magazine. He's been interviewed on NPR, BBC, ABC’s Nightline and CBS News. He's now the in-house Chinese-English translator for numerous human rights organizations.  He was a visiting scholar at Duke University where he wrote his memoir of his China reporting years "Crashing the Party: An American Reporter in China." He now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his family.

PATRICK SWEENEY - class of 1987

Patrick is one of the leading attorneys in the video game industry, having served both as in-house and external counsel to a variety of companies in his career. In his 17+ years in the games industry, Patrick has negotiated agreement resulting in the commercial release of more than 500 games across all distribution platforms and territories.  In addition, he has represented clients with respect to the game rights for more than 50 major motion pictures and television properties, as well as negotiated numerous technology licenses and other agreements inherent within the production of video games.

He is the founder and principal partner of the Interactive Entertainment Law Group, which is currently the largest video game practice in North America.  In its 4 years of existence, it has worked with over 150 clients in 20+ countries. Prior to establishing the Interactive Entertainment Law Group in 2013, Patrick headed the Video Game practice for the Los Angeles office of Reed Smith LLP where he helped to grow the practice into the largest game-specific legal team in North America.  

Prior to that, he was Counsel at the Los Angeles office of Nixon Peabody.  Patrick’s first job within the games industry was in-house counsel at Vivendi Universal Games, where he practiced for five years, before moving onto private practice. Patrick has written or been featured in various articles for such publications as The Daily Journal, Game Developer Magazine, [a]List Daily and others. Additionally, Patrick is a frequent speaker on legal issues pertaining to the games industry on behalf of organizations such as Law Seminars International, International Game Developers Association, American Bar Association and the Beverly Hills Bar. Patrick is also a founding member and current President of the Video Game Bar Association, an invitation-only organization made up of the top legal practitioners in the games industry.

He is also an Adjunct Professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, where he teaches a course entitled Video Game Agreements.  He also taught this same course at Whittier Law School.  When the course began approximately 10 years ago, it was one of the first US law school courses that was specifically tailored to the issues facing the video game industry.  

Patrick was also has also lectured undergraduate and graduate students at University of Southern California, UCLA, Loyola, Washington University, Chicago-Kent Law School, the University of Texas and Vanderbilt University.

Honors and Awards:

• Featured in The Daily Journal as one of the “Top Boutique Law Firms” for 2015
• Featured by The Daily Journal in its annual “Top Entertainment Attorneys” issue for 2014.
• Recommended by the Legal 500 United States 2013 in the area of Media, Technology and Telecoms – Technology; Data Protection and Privacy
• Named one of the top 100 Irish American Lawyers in the United States by Irish America Magazine for 2010
• Whittier Law School ~ Distinguished Alumni (2017)
   

Over the years, Patrick has worked with his clients with respect to the following game titles/franchises (in no particular order):

• Diablo
• Warcraft
• World of Warcraft
• The Witcher
• The Witcher II
• Supreme Commander
• Superman
• The Hunger Games
• Independence Day
• Ark
• Pacman
• Drawn to Death
• Hex: Shards of Fate
• Marvel Puzzle Quest
• Magic: The Gathering
• Warframe
• Zombie Gunship
• The Walking Dead
• Day Z
• Scalebound
• Dreadnought
• The Avengers
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Dungeon Siege
• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
• Paranormal Activity
• The Simpsons 

HILARY AUSTIN - class of 2003

Hilary Austin is a theatrical and corporate event stage manager based in New York City. After graduating from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Hilary worked at Aurora Productions and Roy Gabay Theatricals, where she assisted on over 25 Broadway shows. One of those productions was FELA!, which Hilary stage-managed throughout the original work-shops, the off-Broadway production and the Broadway show which ran at the Eugene O’Neill Theater for a year and a half.  

Hilary also stage-managed the most recent Broadway revivals of A Streetcar Named Desire and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.  In 2011, Hilary began working on Radio City’ Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes. In addition to working on numerous concerts, graduations and events at Radio City, Hilary has work-shopped, developed and stage managed three new shows starring the Rockettes at Radio City.

Most recently, she was the first assistant stage manager of the New York Spectacular, where in addition to assisting the production stage manager, she designed and staged the scene changes and led a crew of 85 stagehands in executing them. Hilary’s favorite annual job has been assisting the production supervisors of the Tony Awards, where she coordinates the precise movement of all 200 performing cast members blending the theatrical performances to the precision of a live television broadcast.

When not working at Radio City, Hilary is a stage manager for corporate events all over the country.  These include car shows, pharmaceutical drug launches, consumer electronic shows, national meetings and conventions, fundraisers and television network upfronts for companies such as Chrysler, Pepsi, State Farm, Volkswagen, Toyota, Yahoo, Disney, ESPN, Johnson & Johnson, NuSkin, Samsung, T-Mobile, Blackberry, The New York Times, JC Penny, Hermes, Novartis and Allergan. Hilary would like to thank her mother for giving her the love of the “stage”, her father for his love “management” and Stephanie, Samantha and Robin for all their love and support. And a very special thank you to Mrs. Barkin for teaching her first technical theater class!

DARREN M. HAYNES - class of 1999

Darren M. Haynes is an award-winning sports anchor at ESPN.  His career coverage includes the Super Bowl, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, Nascar Sprint Cup Chase, World Series and more. His work in the ‘field’ has taken him around the world. Darren is a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit Michigan earning a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Media Arts and Studies. Prior to a career in broadcasting, Darren received numerous NCAA football accolades from the University of New Haven and Wayne State University.

At Amity High School, he was All-State in football and track and field.  As a sports anchor and reporter, Darren has won numerous awards and received several Emmy nominations. In 2008 and 2009, Darren received the Sportscaster of the year award in Texas. He accomplished that same feat winning the Texas AP of Broadcasters Best Sportscaster Award in 2011 and 2012. Darren has also been recognized in New England receiving the Media Recognition Award in 2013.  

He was inducted into the New Haven Gridiron Club Hall of Fame, Class of 2016. He was also awarded the 1998-99 Amity Versatility Award. Darren’s work goes beyond sports. He is passionate about serving in his church and community with organizations such as Special Olympics, Muscular Dystrophy Association, U.S. Armed Forces and INROADS, Inc. He received the “Outstanding Leadership Award” for his work with the Pregnant and Parenting Teens Program as well as the “Media Recognition Award” for his fight against domestic violence with the Love Life Now Foundation.  

Darren has been recognized as one of the “Most Influential Blacks in the State of Connecticut”. In 2007, he launched the Junior Broadcast Program that has helped hundreds of aspiring journalists achieve their dreams in the media industry.  His motivational speeches help individuals increase confidence and use personal power to activate their ideal life. His mantra is “The future is the gift even though this is the present.” Darren continues to host seminars across the country, especially in Connecticut, teaching and motivating high school and college students to never give up on their dreams.

Darren’s work within the community continues with his services to the Second Chance Prison Ministry where he helps create a plan for success for inmates at local prisons and recovery houses. Darren is a native of Woodbridge, Connecticut. He’s a proud member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and the National Association of Black Journalists. Above all of Darren’s professional awards and accomplishments, his greatest achievement is being a father.

VICTOR W. HURST IV, Ph.D. - class of 1985

Victor was born in Dayton, Ohio. His interest in the study of space, and desire to travel there, developed at a very young age and guided much of his life. He started a Space Club at Amity High School in Woodbridge, CT where he graduated in 1985. He went on to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY where he received his BS in Physics in 1989 and received his PhD in Physiology from Albany Medical College in 1999.  That same year he moved to Houston, TX where he devoted himself to his career as a research scientist and instructor at Wyle Labs for NASA. There he worked to advance space relevant medical procedures and equipment—authoring/co-authoring more than 50 scientific journal articles and published abstracts, and training 67 ISS astronauts and cosmonauts from 8 different countries.

In 2007, he participated in The Science Channel documentary “Mars Rising” and had many adventures doing scientific research aboard NASA’s Zero Gravity Aircraft (known affectionately as the ‘vomit comet’). He was chosen as one of four participants in HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) in 2014—a project to simulate the flight operations and isolation associated with a space mission to a very far-away asteroid.  Victor was a certified sky diver and avid cyclist and runner who ran both half and full marathons, and was due to complete the final race of the 2015 Texas Bridge Series benefiting The Bridge Over Troubled Waters, an organization dedicated to the prevention of domestic violence, on November 15th, 2015, but he passed away suddenly on October 27th, 2015 at the age of 48.

A campaign called “Finish it for Victor” resulted in its completion by his friends and family in his honor. Always willing to lend a helping hand when needed, Victor was active in countless community and charity projects, most particularly the Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Foundation (HOBY) and the BP MS 150, a fundraising bike ride that benefits the National MS Society.   A passionate fan of music and concert going, Victor never missed an opportunity to catch Metallica, Kiss or any tour of the 1980’s “hair” bands.

Victor was an avid fan of UConn Husky Sports and the Hartford Whalers. Victor had hundreds of friends and no one was peripheral—everyone mattered. He attended every wedding, birth, graduation, christening and special event he could. He remembered every birthday and anniversary and, while we are all so grateful for the 48 years we were blessed to share with him, it was not nearly enough for a man who epitomized love, joy, compassion and so much humor. Victor’s amazing ability to find humor in most any situation was his most precious gift of all. To quote one of the many wonderful Facebook posts that immediately followed the news of his death: "Victor was the type of person that could single handedly restore people's faith in humanity should it be needed. What an overwhelming loss for us and gain for the heavens.”

DEREK J. MITCHELL - class of 1982

Ambassador Derek Mitchell currently serves as CEO of Shwe Strategies LLC, as well as Senior Advisor to both the Albright Stonebridge Group and the U.S. Institute of Peace.  Ambassador Mitchell was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 29, 2012, as the first U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) in 22 years, ending his service in March 2016.  In 2011, Ambassador Mitchell was appointed the U.S. Department of State’s first Special Representative and Policy Coordinator for Burma, with the rank of ambassador.  From 2009 to 2011, Ambassador Mitchell served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Asian and Pacific Security Affairs (APSA), in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), overseeing the Department of Defense’s security policy toward Northeast, Southeast, South, and Central Asia, for which he received the OSD Award for Distinguished Public Service.  

From 2001 to 2009, Ambassador Mitchell was Senior Fellow and Director of the Asia Division of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He was Special Assistant for Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1997-2001. In the 1990s, Ambassador Mitchell served as Senior Program Officer for Asia and the former Soviet Union at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington, D.C.  Ambassador Mitchell began his work in Washington as a foreign policy assistant in the office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) from 1986-88.  

Ambassador Mitchell has authored numerous books, articles, and policy reports on Asian security affairs, and co-authored China: The Balance Sheet – What the World Needs to Know about the Emerging Superpower (Public Affairs, 2006). He received a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Virginia, and served as a visiting scholar at Peking University in 2007.

JOSEPH NATARELLI - class of 1982

Joseph Natarelli is the Partner-In-Charge of Marcum LLP’s New Haven office as well as the National Construction Industry Group Leader. In addition, he is a member of the Marcum’s Management Committee. Joseph helped found the Hamden firm of Scillia, Dowling & Natarelli over 23 years ago and it became part of one of the nation’s 15th largest firms largest accounting firms, Marcum LLP, a New York based accounting powerhouse. He brings more revenue into the firm than anyone else in New England.

Mr. Natarelli is one of the region’s most respected accountants and he is considered indispensable by his clients. He brings to the office high energy, a joyful approach to hard work and what one partner calls “that hungry quality.” Says a colleague, “Joe loves the hunt for new client opportunities. He is extremely focused, diligent and creative in winning a new client. If a door opens, he can be relentless. And that’s not a negative. He has a passion, desire and focus for the next opportunity.” Mr. Natarelli has more than 30 years of experience with international accounting and consulting firms.

He frequently serves as the Lead Audit Engagement Partner for a variety of consulting matters. Mr. Natarelli is experienced in providing auditing and consulting services related to corporate acquisitions, divestitures, and mergers and refinancing. He is highlytrained in the accounting and structuring of these transactions. In addition, he is a valuable resource on various construction projects, offering his expertise on job performance and enhancing profitability as well as expert testimony in claims arbitration and litigation. Mr. Natarelli frequently speaks on accounting and auditing matters.

For nearly a decade, he has served as a Technical Reviewer for the AICPA’s Audit Risk Alert for Real Estate and Construction Industry Developments and the AICPA Audit and Accounting Guide – Construction Contractors. In November of 2012, Mr. Natarelli, with the assistance of Marcum’s Chief Economist, Anirban Basu, launched the Marcum Commercial Construction Index. This index is published quarterly. Mr. Natarelli has also authored several articles including the most recent “How Long Will the Recovery Last?”, Construction Accounting and Taxation, March/April 2016 and is a member of numerous professional and civic affiliations including Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc., Board of Directors and Membership Committee and Easter Seals Goodwill Industries Rehabilitation Center, Inc., Chairman.   

PAULA K. BRAVERMAN - class of 1974

Paula K. Braverman is a Professor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine specializing in Adolescent Medicine.  She received her BA in Biology from Brown University and her M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine.  In 1987, following a residency in Pediatrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital and a fellowship in Adolescent Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, she joined the faculty in the Department of Pediatrics at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, where she developed the Adolescent Medicine program.

In 2003, she was lured back to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital with an opportunity to grow the community programs for the Division of Adolescent Medicine which has included: medical care for youth at the local juvenile detention center and Cincinnati Job Corps; assisting in the expansion of school-based health clinics into the middle and high schools; and providing health education programming at schools and other community venues such as Boy’s and Girl’s clubs and recreation centers.

Her health education team trains and provides technical assistance to teachers and front line providers at community settings to deliver health education programs to youth. She and her colleagues developed two long-standing programs: one on healthy eating and physical activity, and another on reproductive health specifically for adolescent and young adult males. In addition to providing talks locally and regionally, she has been on the faculty for numerous national pediatrics courses addressing adolescent health issues.  

On the national level, Paula has held leadership positions in the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, and is also a member of other national committees for the American Board of Pediatrics and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. In 2011, Paula was the Adele Hofmann Visiting Professor for the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, and in 2014 was awarded the Founder’s Award for her work on community programs from the Section of Adolescent Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

On the state level, Paula has played a prominent role with the Ohio Department of Health, Ohio Department of Education, and the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. These activities have included being part of the state team that formed the Ohio Adolescent Health Partnership, which is working to improve adolescent health on a state level through strategic planning.  Looking back on her time at Amity, Paula credits her 9th grade biology teacher as a particular inspiration for her long career of public service in adolescent medicine.  Mrs. Jean Burkus was a teacher ahead of her time, devoted to the welfare of her students including teaching the latest information on topics such as the structure of DNA to being an advocate for students to have access to medically accurate information on human sexuality and reproductive health.

NEAL G. DELAURENTIS - class of 1979

Neal DeLaurentis is a graduate of Amity Regional High School class of 1979.  Since then, DeLaurentis has more than 20 years of experience working in international economic development.  He is currently a Vice President at the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF), a $250 million social investment fund which supports and promotes economic opportunities and access to information, products and services for underserved populations. SEDF is part of the Open Society Foundations, a network of charitable foundations created by investor and philanthropist George Soros. DeLaurentis manages SEDF’s portfolio of SEDF investments in Eastern Europe and West Africa. He serves on the boards of directors of selected SEDF portfolio companies and previously served on the board of several non-profit organizations supporting the global microfinance sector. Prior to coming to SEDF in 1998, DeLaurentis was a Program Manager at Partners in Economic Reform, a USAID-funded project working to help restructure the coal mining industries in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. He was also part of the first group of Peace Corps Volunteers in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, focusing on small business development and municipal infrastructure issues. Additionally, he has worked in community banking focusing on small and medium enterprise lending. DeLaurentis has a BS in Finance from Villanova University and an MPA from the University of New Hampshire.

ALAN FLAUMENHAFT - class of 1984

Alan is a graduate of the class of 1984.  He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in English with a business emphasis from Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL. After graduation, Alan moved to Miami and began his professional career as a Sales Representative with Eastern Business Forms, Inc.  In 1990, he returned to Connecticut and started in the healthcare industry as a Sales Representative for US Healthcare (USHC).  During his tenure with USHC, he was promoted to Sales Manager and then to Regional Broker Director of New England.  He left USHC in 1996 to join Health Insurance Plan of NY or HIP (which is now Emblem Health) as Director of Broker Sales in NYC.  In 1998 he was promoted and relocated back to FL as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Health Insurance Plan of FL.

He then returned to the northeast with HIP as Corporate Vice President of Customer Service. In 2000, Alan made a life-changing decision to leave the corporate workforce behind and fulfill his longtime desire to put his entrepreneurial spirit to the test.  He founded a for-profit, social advocacy company called Social Service Coordinators, Inc. (SSC).   SSC, which was funded by Medicare Advantage health plans, provided assistance to low-income seniors to help them enroll in the social service programs for which they were entitled. The company experienced exponential growth over the next decade until it was sold to a private equity firm in January 2011.

Today, Alan continues to stoke his entrepreneurial passion with several business ventures, but is equally passionate about the many philanthropic organizations in which he and his family support, including the Jamie Hulley Foundation, Make a Wish Foundation, Camp Sunshine and Give Kids the World Village.  He is also a proud and active member of the Florida State University Booster program. Despite any business success Alan has achieved, he feels by far his greatest achievement in life is the love and happiness he has experienced in his marriage to his wife Carol and the four wonderful children they have the privilege of raising.

WILLIAM ARTHUR GALSTON - class of 1963

William A. Galston holds the Ezra Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program, where he serves as a Senior Fellow.   He is also a College Park Professor at the University of Maryland.  Prior to January 2006 he was Saul Stern Professor and Acting Dean at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, founding Director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), and Executive Director of the National Commission on Civic Renewal, co-chaired by former Secretary of Education William Bennett and former Senator Sam Nunn.

A participant in six presidential campaigns, he served from 1993 to 1995 as Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Policy. Galston is the author of eight books and more than 100 articles in the fields of political theory, public policy, and American politics.  His most recent books are Liberal Pluralism (Cambridge, 2002), The Practice of Liberal Pluralism (Cambridge, 2004), and Public Matters (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005). 

A winner of the American Political Science Association’s Hubert H. Humphrey Award, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. Galston has appeared on all the principal television networks and is frequently interviewed on NPR, and writes a weekly column for the Wall Street Journal.  He is a graduate of Amity from the class of 1963, and is thrilled to be receiving his award tonight. 

JEFF “GITTY” GITELMAN - class of 2000

Jeff "Gitty" Gitelman is considered by many to be one of the most promising, versatile and unpredictable musicians in the world today.  With a career consisting of performance, production and composition, Jeff continues to break ground and contribute his vision to some of the world's biggest artists.  

After graduating from Amity Regional High School in 2000, Gitty went on to attend the prestigious Berklee School of Music. As a performer, Jeff has shared the stage with the likes of Alicia Keys, David Bowie, Lauryn Hill, Stevie Wonder, Adele, Justin Timberlake, Justin Beiber, Lenny Kravitz, and many others. Gitty has also found success behind the scenes, namely as a writer and producer, for which he has lent his vision to modern artists including J.Cole, Alicia Keys, Frank Ocean, Mary J Blige, Karmin, Chance The Rapper and more.

In addition to helping craft the sound for other artists, Jeff has released two full-length albums and one EP with his own band "The Stepkids.” These productions have been praised and revered by musical legends such as Radiohead and Jimmy Jam.  Currently living in Los Angeles, CA, Gitty is on his way toward becoming one of the most unique and important contributors in the music industry and looks forward to a long and successful musical career. 

JOSEPH RICHARD PEPE - Class of 1968

Joseph grew up in the town of Woodbridge and while at Amity Regional High School, he played quarterback on the football team and was a member of the track team.  After graduating, Joe continued his football career at Milford Academy.  After one year at Milford Academy, Joe enrolled at Southern Connecticut State University where he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in 1972.

Joe began his professional career as a Physical Education and Health teacher at St. Michael’s in Derby, CT.  In 1975, he transitioned from the teaching profession to follow his passion for health and fitness and took a job as a personal trainer at the European Health Spa in Hamden, CT.  Joe quickly moved up the ranks in the organization to sales consultant, assistant manager, and then general manager.

Joe left the European Health Spa in 1980 to open his first Women’s Weight Loss Center.  The operation quickly expanded to 12 locations throughout Connecticut.  In 1982, he opened his first Women’s fitness center, which eventually grew to three locations throughout Connecticut.  In 1983, Joe opened his first tanning center, known as Tropical Suntan Centers, which grew to five locations.

Joe’s passion was always in the fitness industry, keeping Connecticut active and promoting a healthy lifestyle. In 1986 he opened Gold’s Gym in Norwalk, CT and then opened a location in Milford.  In 2003, Joe converted his gyms to Planet Fitness, and as of today, Joe is the principal owner of 15 Planet Fitness gyms in Connecticut and seven Planet Fitnesses in North Carolina. 

ANTHONY P. SCILLIA - Class of 1975

Anthony graduated from the University of New Haven with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting. Anthony is the Partner-In-Charge of the New England Region and is a member of the Firm’s Executive and Management Committees. He has more than 30 years of experience in public practice, including spending more than 25 years working in international accounting and consulting firms. He has extensive experience serving a wide variety of construction companies. His in-depth background includes expert witness testimony for construction claim litigation, arbitration and mediation.

A frequent speaker on construction-related topics, Mr. Scillia presents to members of professional and industry organizations and their related conferences. He serves as a technical reviewer for the AICPA’s Accounting Guide – Construction Contractors. Anthony is an active member in the community with professional and civic affiliations.  Among the many affiliations are: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Construction Industry Program Conference Committee; The Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants (CSCPA); Journal of Construction Accounting and Taxation, Board of Advisors and Contributors; Associated General Contractor of Connecticut, Inc., Treasurer of the Board of Directors; Quinnipiac University, Instructor; University of New Haven, Board of Governors, Chairman of the Audit Committee, Instructor; Connecticut Association for the Performing Arts, Inc., Treasurer of the Board of Directors; Shubert Performing Arts Center, Inc., Chairman of the Board of Directors; Saint Raphael's Foundation, Inc., Trustee; Easter Seals Goodwill Industries Rehabilitation Center, Inc., Treasurer of the Board of Directors; Clifford Beers Guidance Clinic, Inc., Treasurer of the Board of Directors; Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, Board of Directors; The John B. Pierce Laboratory, Chairman of the Board.

Anthony has written numerous articles which have been featured in New Haven Business Times and Journal of Construction Accounting and Taxation. Business and Finance ALBERT SUBBLOIE, class of 1978, earned a degree in Economics from Trinity College with honors.  In 2000, Al founded Tangoe, Inc. As the president and CEO of Tangoe, Inc., he has provided the vision and leadership that has grown Tangoe into the global leader in Communications Lifecycle Management, providing solutions that help organizations of all sizes manage their traditional and mobile communications. Tangoe has grown to 13 operation centers around the globe, employing more than 1000 people, managing more than $16 billion in annual communications spending for 1225 corporations. An early innovator in telecom expense management solutions, Al leverages Tangoe’s capabilities to greatly enable the growing mobility of enterprise workers. After beginning his career at Anderson Consulting, Al co-founded Information Management Associates (IMA) in 1984.  

As CEO for more than 10 years, Al was among the first to develop and market call center voice and data solutions for integrated sales, marketing, and customer service activities. Al guided the growth of IMA to more than $50 million in global sales, including a successful IPO. An innovator in the field of reverse Internet auctions, in 1997, Al co-founded Buyersedge.com, and is credited with a key patent for reverse auction theory, the leading Internet paradigm in most shopping sites today. He also founded Freefire, an eCRM customer interaction software company supporting email response, chat, and remote telephony. Al is an active board member, using his experience to help organizations in the private and nonprofit sectors. Al has served on the board for Acsis, Inc., and currently serves on the board of Operative, Inc..

He has served on the board of the Connecticut Technology Council and presently serves as a board member for the New Haven chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Together with this Tangoe family, Al has worked towards raising more than $45,000 for the JDRF over the last three years.

DAVID V. RING - class of 1982

David graduated from Providence College with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance. David currently occupies two positions at First Niagara Financial Group.  He is the New England Regional President, leading the company’s team of 1000 bankers across Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York’s Lower Hudson Valley.  He is also the Head of Enterprise Banking and has corporate-wide responsibility in all markets where the bank operates for managing and directing all Commercial lending, SBA lending, Treasury Services and Community Development activities.

In addition, he holds corporate governance roles serving on the bank’s operating, asset liability, strategy, and senior loan committees. Ring joins First Niagara from Wells Fargo (Wachovia), where he served for 15 years, most recently as Senior Vice President responsible for commercial banking across Connecticut and Upstate New York. Prior to this position, from 2005 through 2009, Ring directed Wachovia’s Wholesale Banking Division with responsibility for leading all its government, business banking and commercial banking teams in markets from New England through Virginia.  

From 1996 to 2005, he served in corporate and investment banking roles of increasing responsibility, focused primarily on Northeast, Mid-West and Mid-Atlantic markets. Prior to joining Wachovia in 1996, Ring was a commercial banker with National Westminster Bank and People’s United Bank. Dave is an active member of the community, serving on a number of boards of not-for-profit organizations in human services, the arts, education and business.

He has earned the prestigious David Rockefeller Fellow designation from the Partnership for New York City, is a graduate of the Leadership Westchester program and  is a recipient of  The American Red Cross Exceptional Volunteer Award presented by its then President, Elizabeth Dole.  Currently, he is the founder of the American Heart Association “Red Tie Healthy Heart” Society in conjunction with the Go Red for Women national campaign, and holds board positions on the Regional Leadership Council, The United Way, Connecticut Business & Industry Council, The Shubert Theatre, and Arts Westchester.

BRIAN N. LIZOTTE - class of 1996

Brian is Assistant Provost for the Humanities at Yale University, where he oversees the 25 Humanities departments and programs of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, the Whitney Humanities Center, the Center for Language Study, and all foreign language instruction at the University.  As a Provost, he is responsible for creating and implementing academic policy, allocating resources and setting budgets, hiring and reviewing all faculty in his units, and developing major University initiatives.  

Upon his appointment he was the youngest Provost in Yale’s history.  Brian earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, an Ed.M. from Boston University, and B.A. and M.S. degrees in Psychology from Yale College, where he won Yale’s Alpheus Henry Snow Prize, the highest prize awarded by the University, given for “inspiring in his classmates an admiration and love for the best traditions of high scholarship.” Brian previously worked as an attorney in Yale’s Office of the Vice President and General Counsel, and at Bingham McCutchen, LLP in Hartford, Connecticut, specializing in contracts, corporate and bankruptcy law.

He has also taught mathematics and psychology at the Groton School in Massachusetts.  Brian has published in the fields of law and economics. He is a Trustee of Greens Farms Academy, a K-12, independent day school in Westport, Connecticut.  He previously was a Director of the Animal Haven, a shelter and adoption agency serving Greater New Haven.  

JAMIE ALAINE HULLEY - class of 1999

Jamie filled the halls of Race Brook School, Amity Junior High and Amity Senior High School with her quick smile, boundless energy, quirky wit and infectious laughter.  Jamie was a member of Amity’s class of 1999 and Wesleyan University’s class of 2003.  Jamie was a true scholar, rejecting the rote, always pushing the envelope and eager to explore something new.  At Amity she was inducted into the National Honor Society and at Wesleyan she was a Dean’s List Scholar.

But first and foremost, Jamie was an artist. She was a talented painter, cartoonist, writer, poet, actor, dancer, singer-songwriter, and comedian. Jamie studied art in Italy and fell in love with the Italian culture and way of life. The Amalfi coast was her heaven. Jamie’s dream of pursuing a career in the arts was cut short in 2002 at age 20 after a brief and courageous battle with an aggressive form of lymphoma.

Never one to dwell on the negative or to settle for small dreams, Jamie lived each moment of her life to the fullest.  It is almost impossible to put into words how Jamie has impacted the Amity community.  She changed the lives of others in small and almost imperceptible ways a little each day. Jamie engaged in what might best be described as random acts of kindness, generously sharing the very best of herself, bringing out the best in others and making all who knew her feel special.

Jamie’s talent in the arts was recognized early. As a child and young teen Jamie won several local and statewide art contests, performed in a local dance company, and acted in a host of local children’s theater productions. At age 15, Jamie was accepted into Wesleyan University’s summer arts program, The Center for Creative Youth, where her painting was selected as “Best in Show” in the program’s juried art exhibit. Jamie shared her talent and love of the arts with those younger than herself as a volunteer for the School of the 21st Century afterschool program at Race Brook School.  

As a student at Amity High School, Jamie channeled her creative energies into the school newspaper, the honors art program, and the theater program. As a graphic artist for the Trident, Jamie’s satirical cartoons raised eyebrows and consciousness about important school, community and national events. Jamie was elected to the National Art Honor Society and served as its president her senior year.  Also in her senior year, Jamie delighted audiences with her zany humor and comedic talent as Amity’s POPS masters of ceremony and she received the Special Recognition Award at the Connecticut High School Drama Festival competition for her portrayal of the fading actress “The Gloria” in Amity’s rendition of Edwin Sanchez’s play, Icarus.  

At Wesleyan University, Jamie majored in studio art and creative writing. In addition to the many hours she devoted to honing her talent in painting and writing, Jamie did stand-up comedy and performed in a student film, The Working Day. Jamie truly loved being a part of the Wesleyan community and, as was her style, she wanted to give something of herself to her new home so she volunteered to be a Resident Assistant for incoming first year students. Jamie relished the opportunity to help the newcomers feel welcome and find their way through their transition to college life.  She became their friend, mentor, accomplice in jest, but most of all, someone they could trust with their worries and fears and their hopes and dreams.

Jamie embodies everything that the Amity School District hopes that their students will become. She always strove for excellence; she was a person of unquestionable integrity who treated all others with respect; and she definitely “walked the walk” when it came to railing against injustices large and small.

Although Jamie’s time with us was brief, she leaves behind a bountiful legacy through the people whose lives she touched and through the work of the Jamie A. Hulley Arts Foundation.  Jamie continues to share the gift of the arts and to bring beauty into the world through the foundation’s many scholarship and grants programs.

Jamie Alaine Hulley celebrated life from September 20, 1981 to September 9, 2002. As Jamie did in life, her artistic legacy challenges us to seek out and embrace new experiences, to dance to the beat of a different drummer, and to recognize the beauty of the moment and to have the courage to live it.  “The first time her laughter unfurled its wings in the wind,  we knew the world would never be the same.” 

PAHL HLUCHAN - class of 1985

Pahl received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in animation at Rhode Island School of Design in 1987 and a Masters of Fine Arts in painting at Yale University in 1994.   Early in his career he served as an instructor at the Creative Arts Workshop and was a Teaching Assistant at the Yale School of Art. He also served as a production assistant at Geomatrix Productions creating an award winning series of Children’s Programs.   Pahl also served as a visiting lecturer at Dartmouth College, a professor at Savannah College of Art and Design and an adjunct faculty member at Southern Connecticut State University.  

Currently, he serves as a Professor at Delaware College of Art and Design and also serves as Department Head for the Animation Department. Professor Hluchan founded the Animation department at Delaware College in 2000. Throughout his career, he has won numerous prizes for his work. At Yale University, he was awarded the George R. Bunker Prize for excellence in painting and printmaking.  In 1997, he won the Directors Prize for his work “The Halpert Biennial” from Appalachian State University and won a prize at the Slowinski Gallery in New City for his work  “International Showcase”.  He also was awarded first and second prize at the Newark Film Festival in 2009 and 2010.  

Pahl has won numerous individual artist grants and has participated in many three and five person exhibitions. From 1994 to the present he has participated in numerous national exhibits including Harpers, Art Alternative and the Artist Magazine.  Pahl also had a solo show at the New London Art Society in New London, Connecticut.  Pahl’s work has also been featured in many publications including Connecticut Magazine, The New Haven Register and Harper’s magazine.  In addition to his teaching, he continues to work as both a painter and an artist. Many of his works can be viewed on the Internet. Fine and Performing Arts

WILLIAM ATHERTON - class of 1965

William studied acting at the Drama School at Carnegie Tech and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1969.   William’s career has spanned motion pictures, Broadway and television.  He first achieved international recognition as the lead in Steven Spielberg’s debut feature The Sugarland Express and next starred in John Schlesinger’s The Day of the Locust, Robert Wise’s The Hindenburg and Richard Brooks’ Looking for Mr. Goodbar.  

He is known worldwide for what have become his signature film characters: the TV Reporter, Dick Thornburg, in Die Hard I and 2; the EPA official, Walter Peck, in Ghostbusters; Professor Hathaway in Real Genius and the mad scientist, Dr. Gaulkner, in Bio-Dome.  Among his more than 30 feature films are co-starring roles in John Landis’s Oscar, Bill Duke’s Hoodlum, Richard Pearce’s No Mercy, Alan J. Pakula’s The Pelican Brief, Costa Gravas’ Mad City and Ed Zwick’s The Last Samurai. On television, he has starred in several mini-series including the classic western Centennial.  

His many made-for-TV movies include TNT’s production of Joan Didion’s Broken Trust and his portrayal of Darryl F. Zanuck in HBO’s Golden Glove winner Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.  Atherton was recently a recurring series lead on NBCTV’s Life and portrayed Principal Reynolds in the last season of Lost. Atherton has originated roles on and off Broadway for many of America’s leading playwrights.  These include the title character in Joe Papp’s production of David Rabe’s The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, the role of Ronnie in John Guare’s The House of Blue Leaves and Bing Ring Ling in his Rich and Famous.  

He starred in the Broadway premier of Arthur Miller’s The American Clock and the Tony-winning revival of Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutininy Court Martial. Among his more than twenty well-known productions are the New York premieres of Franz Kalfka’s The Castle and Kressman Taylor’s Address Unknown. For his work on stage he has received the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Circle Critics Award, the Theatre World Award and nomination for an Obie and Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award. Upcoming feature films are Time and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie and the thrillers, The Kane Files and Jinn, all to be released in 2011. Government and Public Service

GEORGE GEFRICH - class of 1965

George graduated from The University of Rhode Island with a Bachelor of Arts in Science and Sociology and also earned an M.C.P. from the University of Rhode Island in Community Planning with Environmental and Transportation concentrations.  George has more than 35 years of experience in community, economic, transportation, urban design, environmental planning and Preliminary Engineering/Feasibility Analysis. He has managed numerous projects covering a full range of professional disciplines, including concept planning; engineering feasibility studies; innovative financing of projects; environmental impact statements and reports (EIS/EIR); environmental studies; comprehensive transportation plans; community and socio-economic impacts; construction services issues; Homeland Security assessment; Emergency Response Management Centers; licensing of hydroelectric facilities; and utility infrastructure.  

He is one of the few Project Managers that has a complete background in Economic Development, Highway Engineering and Environmental Planning As Project Manager, Mr. Gefrich completed the Master and Development Plan of two new Port locations on the Mississippi River south of New Orleans in Plaquemines Parish and an assessment of expanded services in Venice, Louisiana regarding the BP Horizon Oil Spill. He was an owner and President of a 4PL Logistics company (providing full supply chain services to shippers) in Guelph, Ontario.

He has managed numerous transportation projects covering a full range of professional disciplines, including engineering feasibility studies; preliminary engineering and environmental permitting; innovative financing of projects including Public Private Partnerships (3P); has been recognized for his effective project management of sensitive projects incorporating techniques for stakeholder and public participation and outreach. His recent projects include being the Project Manager for the highly successful Route 110/113 Interchange in Methuen on I-93 and the Hyannis Access Study analyzing a new Interchange on Route 6 including analyzing 30 plus intersections and the redesign of 6 intersections, the potential replacement of the Route 28 Rotary in Hyannis and the resolution of the Yarmouth Road and Route 28 Intersection.

Mr. Gefrich is the Chairman of the Transportation Committee for the Boston Society of Civil Engineers (BSCES) the oldest engineering society in the United States. He led separate sessions for American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE/BSCES) on Environmental Streamlining and SAFETEA-LU compliance and a major seminar on the Port of Boston and associated relevant issues concerning mobility and intermodal connectivity. George is currently Principal of Vickerman and Associates. Government and Public Service

DAVID T. GRUDBERG - class of 1978

David graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1982, with distinction in History. He received his law degree, with high honors, in 1985 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was Note and Comment Editor of the North Carolina Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif, a legal honor society. He has authored two articles: "Illinois v. Gates: A New Test for Informers' Tips" and "The Safe Roads Act: The Constitutionality of the Roadblock and Chemical Test Affidavit Sections," published in the North Carolina Law Review.

After graduating from law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Ralph K. Winter of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Mr. Grudberg joined the firm in 1990 after practicing in New York City with the law firm of Fischetti, Pomerantz & Russo. While in New York, Mr. Grudberg worked primarily in the defense and appeal of federal and state criminal cases. Since joining the firm, he has been involved in a broad range of litigation in the federal and state courts, including the trial and appeal of criminal, personal injury, commercial, and civil rights cases. Mr. Grudberg has argued numerous appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the Connecticut Supreme Court, and the Connecticut Appellate Court.

He is a member of the federal court Criminal Justice Act panel, and has lectured on behalf of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Grudberg was recently named to the roster of The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of business litigation, white collar criminal defense and non-white collar criminal defense. Mr. Grudberg is admitted to practice before the courts of the States of Connecticut and New York, the United States District Courts for the District of Connecticut and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

ELINOR L. GATES - class of 1987

Elinor received her B.A., magna cum laude, in Math and Astrophysics from Mount Holyoke College in 1991 and received her Ph.D. in Physics/Astronomy from the University of New Mexico in 1998.

Elinor is a staff astronomer at the University of California Lick Observatory. She serves as a role model inspiring and motivating young women and girls to consider careers in science. She not only conducts research but has spent much time doing public outreach and education at all levels. Her instrumentation research specializes in laser guide star adaptive optics and near infrared camera instrumentation and observations.  

Her work on Lick Observatory's laser guide star adaptive optics system helped enable it to be the first system of its kind available for general astronomical use. Her current science research interests are studying quasars, measuring the masses of their central black holes, and characterizing their host galaxies and environment. She has also conducted research on supernovae and the cosmic distance scale.   In addition to Dr. Gates' research activities, she does public outreach for astronomy, describing Lick Observatory, its history and current research, and astronomy in general during local events and on local television shows such as "Eye on the Bay," "Bay Area Backroads," and "This is Us."  She assists documentary film crews from the BBC, History Channel, and Discovery Channel.  

She is also an instructor, showing how exciting and dynamic astronomical research can be at any educational level, from the general public to graduate students. She conducts tours and observation nights for the public and college classes at Lick Observatory. She has been a teacher for the UCSC COSMOS astronomy cluster since 2000, which targets minority and under-represented groups from regional high schools to get them motivated to go to college and major in science.  

Dr. Gates also teaches an observational astronomy workshop for incoming astronomy graduate students from all the University of California campuses as well as individual mentoring of students.  Instruction for professional astronomers, post-docs, and graduate student on observational techniques and usage of the unique high-tech instruments at Lick Observatory is also a large portion of her work.  Additionally, she helped design and teach a NASA IDEAS funded workshop for elementary and middle-school science teachers at Lick Observatory titled "What do Astronomers Do?"