Sportsmen’s Athletic Club Board of Directors.
Direct, an online life insurance company.
SUSAN M. NEZDA LASTRES, M.D., MBA received an Administrator’s Achievement Award for 2007 at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Award Ceremony.
DEBRA (SKURCENSKI) THOMPSON (VMC) ‘90M presented a workshop, “Asking the Right Questions in the Right Way: A Recipe for Success,” at the Alliance For Nonprofit Management’s annual conference in Atlanta.
KARL L. WILLIAMS ‘87M has been appointed as the vice president, Commercial/ SBA Lender with Marine Bank & Trust Co.
1981
CYNTHIA (RENO) BALKSTRA (VMC) recently became president of the Georgia Nurses Association. KEVIN M. BENSON is the meteorologist and coanchor for WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh, Pa. KATHLEEN (MCCREARY) FREEMAN, CRNP (VMC) was a recipient of the 2007 North American Menopause Society’s Certified Nurse Practitioner Excellence Award. CHRISTOPHER B. SNYDER is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Spectrum
GARY J. WINSCHEL was recently appointed to the advisory board of McDonald’s Charities Investment Program, which supports Ronald McDonald House Charities. Gary is the vice president and regional sales manager for PNC Investments in Northwestern Pennsylvania.
1982
RICHARD L. DECKER, M.D. has joined the Hamot Physician Network and will be practicing at Your Family Physicians in Erie. RUSSELL J. JOHNSTON is senior vice president of marketing and product planning for Pioneer Electronics, Inc. in Long Beach, Calif.
Camp Gannon in Iraq
ROTC and Gannon Alumnus Lieutenant General James Dubik ’71 (far right) and Captain Stacey Strus Welch ’00 pose with the Iraqi Minister of the Interior (left). James Dubik is the Commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command in Iraq. Captain Welch was commissioned at Gannon in 2000 and is in the Quartermaster Corps and Aide-de-Camp for a Civilian Assistance Training Team.
The Online Community: A Way to Stay Connected
It is important for many of us as alums to find ways to stay connected to friends and former classmates from our days at Gannon and Villa Maria, and to be able to link back to the University. In looking for effective ways to do this in today’s world of electronic communication, the Alumni Services Office implemented an Online Community almost five years ago. In response to feedback from our alumni, an initiative was recently put into place to enhance the program. On July 18, 2007, the Gannon University Alumni Services Office launched a new online community at gannonalumni.org. If you have not already visited the updated site, I encourage you to do so.You will find an easier login process to access the alumni directory, along with the ability to post messages, class notes, and personal photos. The promotion of alumni activities and University happenings has also improved, and will continue to grow because of this new technology. Remember, the Gannon University Alumni Online Community is for all of us. It allows us to correspond with one another and with others working at the University. I encourage you to take full advantage of this enhanced technology. During a recent National Alumni Board meeting, there was discussion about creating a Gannon University Facebook or MySpace site. At this time, we have decided to put our efforts into our gannonalumni.org site instead of creating other Web pages. However, I would encourage all who have a MySpace or Facebook site to post and/or link the Gannon alumni Web page onto your personal site. This would identify you as a Gannon or Villa Maria alumnus and will provide you with immediate access to the Gannon and Villa Maria Alumni Directory to locate those you have lost track of. Your feedback on the site and ideas for further enhancement are always welcome. Contact Cathy Fresch, director of Alumni Services, at fresch001@gannon.edu with your thoughts.
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