Between his squat, bench and dead lift, Dan Cotter ’88 lifted a total of 1,360 pounds during the American Powerlifting Federation and Amateur American Powerlifting Federation’s Chicago Summer Bash in July. His efforts helped raised approximately $40,000 for the Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth program. Over the past 10 years, Cotter has raised close to $250,000 for the organization.
MC roommates Robert Crawford ’06 and Josh Estrada ’06 have founded Google Chicago Recruiting, which was expected to grow into the second largest group of recruiters outside the company’s California headquarters by the summer of 2012. Previously, Crawford and Estrada worked together for the recruitment firm Allegis Group Services, coleading a national effort for AT&T.
1989
Gregory Ketcham, University of Illinois chaplain and director of the St. John’s Catholic Newman Center, has been named the 2012 winner of the Father John P. Smyth Award, given annually by Sports Faith International to an outstanding Catholic athlete or coach interested in pursuing a religious vocation. Ketcham played football at MC and at Quincy University before entering seminary to become a priest.
graduate of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, Nelson owns Maple Ridge Veterinary Clinic in Geneseo, Ill.
Brad Nahrstadt of Buffalo Grove, Ill., has started his own law firm. He is one of the owners and is a managing partner of Lipe Lyons Murphy Nahrstadt & Pontikis Ltd. in Chicago. The firm concentrates on tort defense and commercial litigation matters.
Ill., completed her master’s degree in health administration from the University of St. Francis. She is the laboratory outreach coordinator at SwedishAmerican Healthsystem in Rockford.
1990 Sandi Walton has been hired as office manager for the Janesville (Wis.) Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.
1996 Cheri Lydic Gipson of Cameron, Ill., is
a speech therapist at OSF St. Mary’s Medical Center.
1998 Scott Bayer of Naperville, Ill., was named the new head wrestling coach at Batavia High School, where he also teaches history. Jennifer Eyre has been appointed principal at Monmouth’s Harding Primary School, and she will also serve as Title One director for the Monmouth-Roseville school district. She most recently held the position of assistant principal of response and intervention. Currently enrolled in a doctoral program through Concordia University, Eyre is obtaining superintendent certification. Matt Nelson received the Dr. Erwin Small First Decade Award at the 129th Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association (ISVMA) Annual Meeting. The prestigious award is given annually to one veterinarian in the state who has graduated from veterinary college in the last 10 years and who represents high standards of professionalism and leadership in ISVMA programs. A 2002
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clan notes
Michelle Kommer Reef has been named the new volleyball coach at Eureka College. Reef coached the past 10 years with the Prime Time Volleyball Club in Champaign, Ill. She also had a four-year stint as coach at Urbana High School.
2000 Brooke McGee Gundstrom of Byron,
2001 Matt Fotis has left the University of Missouri to take a full-time teaching position at Albright College in Reading, Pa. Among his many career accomplishments to date, Fotis is the only playwright to have three of his plays presented in one year at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival since the center was founded in 1971. 2002 Sudipta Roy of Chicago, Ill., reported
that he became a naturalized U.S. citizen on April 23. “This is one of the happiest days of my life,” he wrote. “I cannot express my feelings in words.”
Jason Vana of Monmouth is president of Ignite Student Ministries. He also runs his own graphic design and marketing business (jasonvana.net) and works part-time at Carl Sandburg College.
2004 Rob Purlee has taken a position on the basketball staff at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. 2006
Evan Harrison of Roseville has been named a financial representative for Country Financial.
2007 Megan Hamilton is an account executive and assistant to the sales team at WEEK/ WHOI in Peoria and is an assistant track coach at Peoria Notre Dame High School.
Maj. Chris Heatherly ’94 recently completed an assignment with the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, which included a 12month deployment to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Prior to that deployment, he served as the intelligence planner in the G5 plans section, helping to develop the operational blueprint for the entire task force. In Afghanistan, Heatherly was reassigned as the Regional Information Fusion Center (RIFC) chief, leading a team of 120 military and civilian personnel. “We routinely shared our analysis with the larger U.S. intelligence community and coalition partners,” said Heatherly, whose family recently moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he is an instructor at the Command and General Staff College.
2008 Sara Tuttle Scruggs of Schaumburg, Ill., completed her master’s degree in social work from Aurora University in 2010.
Carly Wolf of Oswego, Ill., who completed her CPA certificate in 2010 and her master’s in business administration from Aurora University in 2011, works for Caterpillar, Inc.
2009 Laura Gluba of Altona, Ill., is a resi-
dence service director with Community Living Options in Galesburg.
Jake Virgo is currently working toward his Ph.D. in physical therapy at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago. Research he conducted as a senior at Monmouth was recently published in the Journal of Psychological Inquiry (JPI). Titled “The Role of Nitric Oxide in Consolidation and Long-Term Memory in Rats,” Virgo received the JPI’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research for this work.
2010 Annie Lane returned from India in June after spending a year doing volunteer work, including three months at a girls school in Anupshahr. As a Monmouth student, Lane spent time in Italy, England, Scotland and Romania. 2011
Amanda Rush is a consultant for Sogeti USA in Chicago, Ill., where she develops applications for clients using a variety of tools. Her area of specialty is mobile applications, particularly Android.
2012
Michael Fenton of Bradley, Ill., has joined the Bourbonnais Herald/County Market as a reporter.
monmouth | winter 2013