Alumni Newsmakers

MS ’91, PhD ’94, the president of the Case Alumni Association, has been elevated to the position of Associate Dean of Professional Programs at the Case School

of Engineering.

In the newly created role, she’ll oversee the school’s professional graduate degree programs, including the Masters of Engineering and the Masters of Engineering and Management degrees. She will also lead the development of new, accelerated master’s degree programs — with ambitious alumni in mind.

The Case School of Engineering has been launching graduate programs that can add new skills and luster to a resume relatively quickly. For example, a new master’s in chemical engineering program, spanning one year, is designed for professionals who lack a chemical engineering undergraduate degree.

“These are additive educations, on top of a bachelor’s degree, that would allow someone to pivot or advance a career,” Collins said.

She added that she plans to develop a specialty master’s program for nearly every program at CSE.

“I am grateful for the leadership and expertise she brings to advancing these important initiatives,” Dean Venkataramanan “Ragu” Balakrishnan said upon announcing her appointment.

Collins, who assumed the new title Jan. 1, remains on the faculty of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, where she is an associate professor.

Learn more about the accelerated master’s degrees at engineering.case.edu

Lauren Smith ’13, MS ’15, is riding an exciting career into space engineering as an operations manager for Northrop Grumman in Denver. She returned to campus in February as the keynote speaker at the Society of Women Engineers’ Luncheon celebrating Engineers Week.

Several dozen students and faculty — including Smith’s former advisor, CAA president Sunniva Collins, MS ’91, PhD ’95 — gathered in a lecture room in Nord Hall Feb. 21 for a buffet lunch and career guidance. Smith had plenty of advice for the aspiring scientists and engineers, both men and women, including these tips: • Approach a career with an open mind

“I try to be very open to things I know nothing about. What are some new networks I can join — new skills I can learn? I do say ‘no’ to things sometimes, but I try to lead with ‘yes.’” • Learn how to build relationships

“Case is an amazing school. The network is one of the most valuable assets you will graduate with.” • Ask for help

“I ask for everything.” • Take advantage of internships

“You’re being judged on character. Don’t wait for someone to give you something to do. Pitch a project. Meet people. As an intern, you can ask anyone just about anything. You really want to take advantage of that.” • Brand yourself a pro

“I don’t date at work. I will not be seen as a datable person. I’m here to work. I dress to be strong. I don’t dress to be pretty. I dress to be confident.”

When no one’s allowed to gather, everyone wants to stream. That’s kept the staff plenty busy at BoxCast, the Cleveland live streaming pioneer founded and led by Gordon Daly '00, MS ’01.

Daly’s company provides digital streaming services to customers that want to broadcast events. By late March, with people working from home and keeping their social distance, BoxCast’s viewership numbers surged about 20 times higher than usual, Daly told The Plain Dealer. What’s more, he was hiring. “It doesn’t really feel like there are any winners right now, and it’s very strange to be in a situation where the world feels like it’s melting around you, yet we’re very busy,” Daly told the newspaper. “The way we view it, now is the time the world needs us, because they need to communicate and that’s what we’ve built.”

Daly, a former Rockwell engineer, launched BoxCast in 2013, after he and his early team helped a Westlake funeral

home broadcast services over the internet. By its 10th anniversary in 2019, the company employed about 40 people and its broadcasts were viewed by more than 10 million annually.

The recent surge in demand has come from faith-based organizations that are now streaming services, municipalities broadcasting public meetings, and fitness centers providing online classes, Daly said. The staff, working remotely, has had to hustle to serve the new and existing clients.

The silver lining, he added, is that the health crisis may prompt institutions to become more digitally adept.

“There was always a need to reach people remotely, COVID or not,” he told the newspaper. “This is just accelerating that, which I think is a healthy thing for society.”

With a pair of Case engineering degrees and a desire to serve, Aklilu Demessie ’77, MS ’81, made a splash in his profession and in his adopted hometown of Cleveland, where he became a champion of multiculturalism. Word made it back home, to Ethiopia, which recently recognized him with one of its highest honors.

Demessie, a retired senior engineer for United Technologies Aerospace Systems, in February received the Knight Grand Cross from the Ethiopian Crown Council. It was presented to him at the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C., by Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie, the grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie.

Demessie, who lives in the Cleveland suburb of Hudson with Zufan, his wife

of 42 years, came to the U.S. as an American Field Service exchange student in the early 1970s. He graduated from Oberlin High School and went on to Case Institute of Technology, where he earned degrees in civil engineering and engineering mechanics.

He worked as a senior engineer and group leader at the former Goodrich Landing Gear for more than 30 years while contributing to the region’s cultural mosaic. He helped forge a Sister Cities agreement between Cleveland and Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, and served the International Community Council of Cleveland as its vice president. He also co-founded the Society of Ethiopians Established in the Diaspora, which raises scholarships for American youth of Ethiopian heritage.

More recently, he was instrumental in the creation of the Ethiopian Cultural Garden in Rockefeller Park, not far from campus. Upon its dedication in 2019, it became the first African garden in the 103-year history of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens.

A Case degree helped launch Thomas Botzman ’81, PhD, speedily into engineering — he attained a dozen patents as a young polymer engineer for Goodyear. But the Eagle Scout from Stow, Ohio, was just getting started.

Botzman became a multi-lingual professor, a Fulbright Scholar and a top college administrator. In July, he’ll become the 13th president of the University of Mount Union. The private college of 2,200 in Alliance, Ohio, announced his appointment in January.

“He brings with him an array of experience,” Matthew Darrah, chair of the

Presidential Search Committee, said in a press release. Botzman and his wife, Venessa, will return to a campus they know well. Botzman was on the faculty and served as an administrator at Mount Union from 1989 to 2004. The couple’s daughter, Gabriela Botzman, graduated from Mount Union in 2017 with a degree in elementary education.

He’ll be leaving Misericordia University in Dallas, PA, where he has been president since 2013. The local newspaper, the Times Leader, published these insights into the Misericordia president, supplied by Botzman: • He’s one of 13 children. All nine brothers are Eagle Scouts, and all four sisters are Gold Award Girl Scouts.

• He lived in Luxembourg in the 1980s and taught in Mexico (four times, once as a Fulbright Scholar) and

Italy in the 1990s. • Many of his 12 patents are for rubber products and tires in extreme environments.

• He’s worked as a short-order cook and dishwasher, a disc jockey, college business and economics professor and a CFO and claims “spinning records is much more difficult than it looks.”