Portraits Summer 2023

PORTRAITS

The new Duke Building unlocks creativity and problem-solving for the next generation

ENGINEERING IN ACTION

INSIDE

Makerspace a place to create almost anything

Playing and learning in the new CIS&T labs

New dean ready to lead ensemble

A great day

March 31 was a great day for Pitt-Bradford, our community and our region.

On that day, we celebrated the opening of the George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building, a magnificent facility where students have been creating, innovating and collaborating since the first day it opened.

Part of what made that day in March so special was hearing many people –elected officials, alumni, students, industry and manufacturing partners, and community members – share their excitement about this new facility and what having it means to them and to the future of our region.

For Mychal Berlinski, a mechanical engineering technology major from Allegany, N.Y., it’s personal.

Mychal started college at another institution, where he had difficulty in the large and impersonal classes; his smallest class had 50 students in it. To succeed, he realized he needed to transfer elsewhere.

After hearing about Pitt-Bradford’s new four-year engineering technology programs, Mychal visited campus, talked with Dr. Matt Kropf, director of the engineering technology programs, and got excited about studying in a new building.

And now, Mychal is thriving.

“I spend most of my time at this campus in this building,” he said during the dedication, “whether it be studying in one of the study rooms or working in the makerspace and machine shop. The space feels welcoming to students.”

I frequently see Mychal and several other students working on projects throughout the building.

They’re excited by what they are creating and how that experience will prepare them for successful careers and help them make a positive impact on their communities, including Bradford.

We’re excited about that, too.

As I looked around the room during the dedication, I was reminded of pictures I’ve seen from the early 1960s when Dr. Donald Swarts, Pitt-Bradford’s first president, talked with residents about how having a campus of the University of Pittsburgh in this community would have a profound and lasting impact.

Dr. Swarts was right.

As we prepare to celebrate Pitt-Bradford’s 60th anniversary this fall, we remember the overwhelming support we’ve received for more than six decades that enables our campus to continue to profoundly impact our students and the region.

I am humbled by and grateful for your continuing support.

But I think Mychal said it best that day: “Your impact will not only be reflected in my life, but also in the lives of students who will use this building for years to come.”

PORTRAITS

SENIOR EDITOR

Pat Frantz Cercone

EDITOR

Kimberly Marcott Weinberg

COPY EDITORS

Laurie Dufford

Judy Hopkins ’71-’73

Joelle Warner

ART DIRECTOR

John Sizing

www.jspublicationdesign.com

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Alan Hancock ’07, ’19

Glenn Melvin ’04

Aaron Straus

PRINTER

Knepper Press

Published by the Office of Communications and Marketing University of Pittsburgh at Bradford © 2023 www.upb.pitt.edu

NONDISCRIMINATION POLICY STATEMENT

The University of Pittsburgh, as an educational institution and as an employer, values equality of opportunity, human dignity, and racial/ethnic and cultural diversity. Accordingly, as fully explained in Policy 07-01-03, the University prohibits and will not engage in discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, genetic information, disability, or status as a veteran. The University also prohibits and will not engage in retaliation against any person who makes a claim of discrimination or harassment or who provides information in such an investigation. Further, the University will continue to take affirmative steps to support and advance these values consistent with the University’s mission. This policy applies to admissions, employment, access to and treatment in University programs and activities. This is a commitment made by the University and is in accordance with federal, state and/or local laws and regulations.

For information on University equal opportunity and affirmative action programs, please contact: University of Pittsburgh, Office of Affirmative Action, Diversity and Inclusion, Carol W. Mohamed, Director (and Title IX, 504 and ADA Coordinator), 412 Bellefield Hall, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15260 (412) 648-7860.

In compliance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, the University guarantees that students have the right to inspect all personally identifiable records maintained by the institution and may challenge the content and accuracy of those records through appropriate institutional procedures. It is further guaranteed by the University that student records containing personally identifiable information will not be released except as permitted by the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act.

Sofia Brien

Director of Human Resources and Title IX Liaison (814)362-0251, spb128@pitt.edu

Richard T. Esch ’83, president

Telling the Stories of the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford

features

12 Everything is Possible

The makerspace in the George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building is already promising to have an impact on future students by broadening horizons, inspiring career shifts, and potentially kindling a new wave of engineers drawn to the power of creation and practical problem-solving.

16 Mission Accomplished

Local industries have lobbied Pitt-Bradford for a four-year engineering program for more than 40 years. Last fall, their wish finally became reality with the creation of four-year mechanical engineering technology and energy engineering technology programs on campus. The latest programs are housed in the $24.5 million, 40,000-square-foot Duke Building that opened in January.

Let us show you around.

24 Best of Both Worlds

From cramped quarters tucked behind the business office, two reimagined technology labs for virtual reality and systems integration now have room for students to thrive. In one, information systems students will build a cloud. In the other, they will build whatever experiences they can imagine into virtual worlds.

departments

2 First Shot

With its rooftop solar array, the George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building is expected to be the second Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified building on campus.

4 The Commons

New dean of academic affairs; Dr. Francis Mulcahy retires; biology students study honey from homeland; first-year swimmers break records; women athletes celebrate 50 years of Title IX; grapplers finish second in first year of AMCC competition; contribute to 60-year celebration; behind the scenes at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh.

26 Panther Pack

Nicki Kellogg ’14 saves co-workers life; Elizabeth Wright ’19 fights for better living conditions for incarcerated people.

The Class of 2023 met the joyous heart of Larry “Rock ‘n’ Roll” Schardt ’72-’74, at spring Commencement, where the Pitt-Bradford Alumni Association presented him with its Alumni Award of Distinction. A professor at The Pennsylvania University and a motivational speaker and author, Schardt frequently returns to Pitt-Bradford and shares stories of his time on campus.

Cover by Peter Chapman

ON THE COVER: Gabriel Slocum, a sophomore mechanical engineering technology major from Holland, N.Y., welds in the machine shop in the Duke Building.

first shot

PORTRAITS

Generating energy with solar flair

Dr. Matt Kropf, associate professor of engineering technology, and Allee Williams, a senior energy science and technology major, were on hand for the installation of solar panels atop the George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building late in the fall. The solar array, currently the largest in the Pitt system, was paid for by a $230,000 grant from the Med-Ed/Penelec Sustainable Energy Fund and is projected to produce approximately 113,000 kWh per year.

Williams, who graduated in December 2022, took advantage of the installation for use in his capstone course, a culminating class required by some majors that involves a project or research. As part of his capstone project, Williams worked with Kropf to calculate whether the roof of the Duke Building had adequate support for the panels and the best place to set them to distribute their weight. Currently, he is a commissioning and energy engineer with HBS Solutions in Maryland.

Williams also began working on an energy dashboard that will show energy production by the panels and energy usage in buildings across campus. This fall, senior energy science and technology student Alex Marrone plans to work with Kropf to finish the dashboard for his capstone project.

In April, the university held its inaugural Solar Conference in the Duke Building to help community leaders and landowners learn more about large-scale solar development.

COMMONS

Johnson wants to talk about joy

New dean finds happiness in collaborating with colleagues

Dr. Jeffrey Johnson, who began as Pitt-Bradford’s new vice president and dean of academic affairs July 1, uses an uncommon term in describing how he feels about administration: joy.

A music composer, Johnson said he gets the same satisfaction from collaborating with faculty on programs as he does from working with musicians.

“I talk a good deal about joy. I think it’s good to stay in touch with the joy that can be produced through working,” said Johnson, who comes to Pitt-Bradford from Marywood University in Scranton, Pa., where he had been the dean of the Insalaco College of Arts and Sciences since 2020.

Before his time at Marywood, Johnson spent 22 years at the University of Bridgeport, Conn., where he began as a member of the music faculty in 1998. He progressed through faculty and administrative ranks and served as a retention specialist, director of the music program and assistant provost for student success before becoming associate dean of the college of arts and sciences in 2018.

When he first made the move from teaching music to administration at Bridgeport, Johnson said his wife, Yumin, asked him, “Why would you leave your job teaching music?”

He told her, “I find it much more similar than different.”

Administration, he explained, is

just a different kind of ensemble and a new outlet for his love of collaborating with people in a setting other than music.

That’s saying something because Johnson’s mother says his love of music began in the womb. As a child, he said, his dad worried about him a bit. “He always wanted me to be normal because I loved playing the piano,” Johnson said. Instead of playing baseball outside, he would lay tube socks across the strings of his piano so that he could play quietly, sometimes long into the night.

By the time he was a teenager working in a movie house, he would handwrite musical compositions while the movies played. The movie house

News from Around the Quad

GLENN MELVIN ‘04

manager was the first to call him “professor.”

He would become a full professor of music in 2009 at Bridgeport, where he discovered his love of administration. There, he also discovered that he loved sharing his musical expertise with general audiences through writing concert reviews for the Boston Globe, Hartford Courant and other newspapers and hosting the “Evening at the Opera” radio show for WMNR in Bridgeport.

As a lover of history, Johnson said he also collects bootleg vinyl recordings of opera performances and 19th century handwritten journals.

Before entering higher education, Johnson taught from 1994 to 1998 at the renowned Boys Choir of Harlem (N.Y.), an acclaimed children’s choir in partnership with New York Public Schools. Children learned at the Choir Academy of Harlem during the regular school day, then studied music into the early evening.

“I learned so much about teaching because you have to be highly entertaining to keep the attention of 7th grade boys,” he said.

It was ironic, he said, that he ended up for a short time teaching in New York Public Schools with the Boys Choir, since his own father was a superintendent in a public school district, and Johnson swore he would never teach public school.

As a small child in the 1930s, Johnson’s father lived with his mother and aunt in Bradford, and Johnson is a native of Jamestown, N.Y. Although his father’s career had his family moving around upstate New York, Johnson fondly remembers visits to Jamestown and Bradford as a child.

“I think of Jamestown being just piles and piles of snow,” he said. He and Yumin are looking forward to acquainting themselves with the area during all its seasons.

with him here are, from left, Austin Jacobs, a senior exercise science major from Walworth, N.Y.; Cianna Gland, a senior criminal justice major from Philadelphia; and Elsie Wanyoike, a first-year biology major from Dayton, N.J. In 2022-23, donor scholarships provided $812,541 for 368 students receiving 539 scholarships.

Faculty sta showcase

Slick, the five-piece faculty and staff band named for a former Bradford mascot, performed during the faculty-staff talent showcase this spring. This was the second year that the showcase was held as a noontime chance for faculty and staff to share some of their non-academic interests. In addition to Slick, performers included Dr. Shailendra Gajanan, professor of economics, on violin; Diane Null, data coordinator in the office of the registrar, playing flute; and Dr. Nancy McCabe, professor of writing, clogging. Slick consists of, from left, Dr. Max Jensen (hidden), assistant professor of Spanish, on drums and vocals; Mary Kafferlin, library specialist, on bass; Dr. Matt Kropf, associate professor of engineering technology, on keyboard; Dr. Drew Flanagan, assistant professor of history, on vocals; and Alan Hancock ’07, technical analyst, on lead guitar and drums.

BOTTOM): GLENN MELVIN ’04, RACHEL CLOSE ’22

Ron Orris ’77-’79, executive director of the Philo and Sarah Blaisdell Foundation, met with scholarship recipients during the university’s annual Donor Scholarship Luncheon. Pictured

Mulcahy, Horner retire from university

Dr. Francis Mulcahy, associate professor of chemistry, and Carma Horner, disability resources and services coordinator, retired from the university at the end of the spring semester.

Mulcahy was one of the longestserving members of the faculty, having come to Pitt-Bradford in 1989 after earning his doctorate in chemistry at

the University of Pittsburgh.

In his years teaching general, analytical and environmental chemistry, Mulcahy inspired several of his students to enter the teaching profession at various levels.

Among those is Dr. DorothyBelle (Craig) Poli ’93, a professor of biology at Roanoke College.

“Dr. Mulcahy is the reason I went into teaching,” she said. “His faith in me, even when I had none in myself, kept me going. He was so instrumental in my development as a scientist and a college professor.”

Poli was one of nearly a dozen former students who nominated Mulcahy for the Pitt-Bradford Alumni Association Teaching Excellence Award, which he received alongside his wife, Dr. Mary Mulcahy, associate professor of biology, in 2019.

In 2013, the university’s academic chairpersons selected Francis Mulcahy for the Chairs’ Faculty Teaching Award.

“Students fondly consider him a very accessible instructor who is always available after class for questions dealing with homework or lab reports,” said Dr. Yong-Zhuo Chen, professor of mathematics and then-chair of the Division of Physical and Computational Sciences.

Chen and alumni of the chemistry program have also praised Mulcahy’s work outside the classroom, advising chemistry and pre-pharmacy majors, repairing lab equipment, and supervising directed study and internships.

In 2017, he was tapped to serve as the founding director of the university’s forensic science program, which has become one of the most popular for incoming students.

Dr. David Soriano, associate professor of chemistry, taught alongside Mulcahy for all his 30-plus years at Pitt-Bradford. “He gave 100% to help his students,” Soriano said. “He was deeply concerned about his students’ education and is a solid educator

Dr. Francis Mulcahy retired this spring after teaching for 34 years at Pitt-Bradford.

“He gave 100% to help his students. He was deeply concerned about his students’ education and is a solid educator of very high moral character.”

–Dr. David Soriano, associate professor of chemistry

STUDENTSTAND OUTS

of very high moral character.”

The Mulcahys live in Bradford and have two grown children. Francis Mulcahy will continue to teach some classes.

Also retiring from Pitt-Bradford this spring was Carma Horner, who had served the university since 2005, when she came to Pitt-Bradford to work in the university’s TRIO Student Support Services Program.

In 2010, she began serving as the university’s disability resources and services coordinator, working with students, faculty and staff to obtain accommodations for access to academics and services on campus. Before coming to Pitt-Bradford, she was an administrator with Drug and Alcohol Abuse Services, an addiction counselor and residence life professional.

Horner plans to begin retirement with trips to visit family and friends. She is active in the Zonta Club of Bradford, Big Brothers Big Sisters of McKean County, and her church.

An education sweet as honey

When biology students Heaman Dhimal and Alisha Khadka were children in Nepal, there was one cure for all their childhood illnesses – honey.

Now they want to find out whether their elders were right about the wild putka honey of their childhoods having special medicinal properties.

Several other researchers have recently examined the cultural use of the honey as medicine and how its sales affect the livelihood of Himalayan communities. Now Dhimal and Khadka are doing their own research to see why the putka honey is special.

Dhimal and Khadka both came to the United States as children as part of a refugee resettlement program. They both attended high school and met each other in Harrisburg, which has become a hub for the Bhutanese refugee community.

Dhimal spent his childhood in a refugee camp in the subtropical lowlands of Nepal, where he grew up attending a school with ambitious standards in the camp. His father was a honey harvester, climbing trees barefoot to retrieve the honey from wild bees.

Dhimal’s parents chose to take advantage of the United Nations Human Rights Commission’s relocation program and join the increasing number of Bhutanese being resettled, including tens of thousands who came to the United States.

“They wanted me to get an education,” Dhimal said. “That’s why they came here.”

Khadka’s family settled in the United States when she was 13.

Both students said they have always wanted to be doctors. Khadka applied and was accepted to other colleges, but they were too expensive. That’s when Dhimal told her about Pitt-Bradford, where he was an accepted student, and its financial aid, a biology program and opportunities such as undergraduate research.

Both have taken advantage of all the campus has to offer – not only research, but also a study abroad trip last summer to Graz, Austria, with Orin James, assistant professor of biology, to compare health care in Austria and Slovenia to that in the United States.

In the lab with her research mentor, Dr. Robin Choo, assistant professor of biology, Khadka is evaluating the antimicrobial properties of putka honey against other honeys, such as domestic, wild, raw and pasteurized. After swabbing the plates, she labeled each and puts them in the incubator.

Dhimal is taking a different tack, working with Melissa Odorisio, laboratory administrator, to extract chemicals from the putka in search of the root of its medicinal properties.

– Kimberly Weinberg

Alisha Khadka and Heaman Dhimal receive instruction from

Dr. Robin Choo, assistant professor of biology.

Horner served the university since 2005 and looks forward to visiting family and friends.

(TOP, BOTTOM) KIMBERLY WEINBERG, ALAN HANCOCK ‘07

Everett Chronowski ’17

Plant lover finds natural home as grower at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

With a new master’s in museum studies and digital curation from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Master Gardener certification from the Pennsylvania State College Extension, Everett Chronowski combines his love for flowers and museums as a grower at Pittsburgh’s 125-year-old Phipps Conservatory.

HOW THE DISPLAYS STAY SO PERFECT-LOOKING: Flowers past their prime are dead headed every week, or in certain circumstances replaced. Chronowski helps in growing the new crops and planting for new exhibits. It’s not always easy. “Sometimes, during exhibit installations, there are props such as mannequins or painted topiary, and sometimes you really can’t bump into them.” That can make planting the new perfect specimens like doing “garden yoga.”

HIS FAVORITE PART OF HIS JOB:

“I get to see and work with a lot of cool plant species that you don’t get to see every day.” The species he takes care of vary from show to show. “It really does range from tropicals to desert plants to native plants to annuals that everyone knows and loves to orchids and bonsai. Where it gets complicated is when tropical plants are next to desert plants. That’s when you have to use your horticultural skills.”

THE WAY HE WISHES PEOPLE THOUGHT ABOUT MUSEUMS:

“If you are hitting a block in something, visit a museum. Sometimes you find inspiration in the most unlikely places.”

LAKEN BURNS

Help Wanted

Celebrating 60 years of transforming lives

On Sept. 3, Pitt-Bradford will mark the 60th anniversary of its founding. A committee of campus volunteers has been busy cooking up some special events and gifts for those who visit campus.

At Portraits, we’re cooking up something special, too, but we need

your help. Pitt-Bradford was founded to serve an underserved population, and that’s what we continue to do, whether students are from a rural area, a family of modest means or a marginalized group. And we know that a college education is transformational.

College provides a constant stream of new people and ideas that change us and the way we see the world.

So how did your PittBradford experience change you? Did you get your love of art from Miss Van? Maybe Janet McCauley introduced you to politics, Doc Freda made you think engineering was doable, or Dr. Merwine made you study anatomy until you thought you hated him, but then you felt as prepared as anyone else in med school.

Did you meet a spouse? A friend from a background so different that it gave you a window into how other people live? Did long late-night talks change the way you thought about something? Were you a city kid

who discovered the stars and the peace of walking in the woods?

Did you take on a first leadership role, find a mentor or gain confidence from someone who believed in you?

What did you learn at PittBradford? We want to know about the people, classes and experiences that transformed you. Use the QR code or visit www. upbalumni.org/mystory to fill out the form, write to us at Portraits@pitt.edu or track down editor Kimberly Weinberg at the Emeritus Alumni Meet and Greet from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 22 (during Alumni and Family Weekend) in the lobby of the George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building.

We’ll share some of your stories in the Winter 2024 issue.

Dr. Erik Nakjavani, professor emeritus of humanities, speaks with a student in his office.

Dr. Patty Bianco, professor emeritus of theater, works with students backstage in O’Kain Auditorium. Below, members of the women’s basketball team hold a clinic for CARE for Children.

Scan here for more information.

Big time performances

Wrestlers finish strong in inaugural AMCC season

Pitt-Bradford wrestlers took home two individual championships and two runners-up and finished second in the conference during the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference’s inaugural season in the sport.

Although it was the Panthers’ fourth year of varsity wrestling, previously, the team had put together its own schedule of conference and non-conference competitions.

Conference competition began in early January, when the Panthers hosted the three other member programs for the first AMCC quad meet and came away with a second-place finish.

The results from the quad meet were used to set up seeding for the endof-season AMCC Championship meet.

Placement in the meet was based on individual finishes at each weight class earning a total point value, with the winner gaining the most points overall. The Panthers tallied 66.5 points, which led to a second-place finish behind champions, Alfred (N.Y.) State College.

Individually, the Panthers had two grapplers win their weight classes, with another two taking second.

D.J. Slovick completed an impressive freshman campaign that saw him post a 24-14 record. Slovick won the first two matches of the championship meet in the 165 lb. weight class with pins before securing the championship with a 17-1 technical fall victory.

Fellow Freshman Cameron CarterGreen took home the championship in

the heavyweight class. After a season that saw him win 17 of 26 matches, Carter-Green earned a pair of victories by decision to win the championship. Also placing for the Panthers was freshman Kyle Keefe at 184 lbs. and senior Nate Powley at 197.

“I’m proud of our three freshmen who made big strides this season and have really helped our program turn the corner. I expect big things from them moving forward,” said Head Coach Blake Heim. He added, “I’m also really happy for Nate Powley. He has been an important member of our program since its transition to varsity competition, and it’s awesome that he earned these honors in his final season.”

Wrestling at 165, freshman D.J. Slovick finished his first season for the Panthers with a 24-14 record.

Young swimmers break records

Marks fall in distance, breaststroke events

A pair of first-year student-athletes made a big impact on the Pitt-Bradford swimming programs this season, leading the teams to their most victories in five years, while setting numerous program records along the way.

Conan Young of Titusville, Pa., and Isabella Cercone of Allison Park, Pa., both had impressive seasons for the Panthers, earning All-Conference recognition while also winning matching Pitt-Bradford Rookie of the Year awards.

Young bookended his season with record-setting performances. In his first race in the Paul Duke III Aquatic Center, Young shattered the team record in the 1,000-meter freestyle, beating the old mark by nearly 10 seconds.

He led the men’s team to seven dual-meet victories throughout the season before finishing his year in an even more impressive fashion.

At the joint Allegheny Empire Swim Championships, Young picked up a conference championship, the first for the program since 2018. Young won the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 16:20.53, setting a meet record time in the process. His time was only 4 seconds behind the national qualifying mark.

He also set his third program record of the season, taking second place in the 500-yard freestyle at the Championship meet.

His fellow freshman Cercone also had a strong debut campaign for the women’s team. She earned two spots on the All-Conference team while making her own mark on the program record book. At the seasonending championship meet, Cercone was the second-best finisher for the AMCC in both the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events.

Earlier in the season, she set the mark in the 100-yard breaststroke. In a dual meet at Buffalo (N.Y.) State, Cercone bested the old record by .41 seconds, swimming the race in 1:14.50.

“I am very proud of Conan and Isabella’s standout performances at conference championships. Both set out at the beginning of the season knowing what they had to do to achieve their goals for this season,” said Head Coach Chelsea Schwab. “They really made their mark as freshmen, and this is just the beginning for them.” –Matt

Lovell

From nine to 50

Women’s athletes celebrate 50 years of landmark legislation

In March, Pitt-Bradford athletics celebrated the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, the congressional act that ensured that all students have the same rights and opportunities to participate in educational and extracurricular programming, regardless of gender.

Organized by Tina Phillips, senior women’s administrator and head softball coach, the athletics department held a Title IX anniversary celebratory luncheon where women athletes had the opportunity to meet and ask questions of a panel made up of three women who played pivotal roles in supporting and advancing women’s athletics in the Bradford and Pitt-Bradford communities.

Forty-five student-athletes, coaches, and administrators heard the stories of Margie Holland, Toni Frontino and Sue Aljoe.

Holland, a Big 30 Hall of Fame inductee, initiated and coached the girls’ basketball and track and field programs at Bradford Area High school. In 1975 she filed and won the lawsuit with the Pennsylvania State Education Association to seek equal pay for women in coaching.

Toni Frontino was a longtime girls’ basketball coach at St. Bernard School and Bradford Central Christian High School. She also was the first woman to coach an intercollegiate athletic team at Pitt-Bradford. She was assisted by Sue Aljoe, who also has a long coaching career in the Bradford area, taking the helm of the Central Christian softball team when Frontino moved to Pitt-Bradford.

“To hear these women share their stories was inspiring,” Phillips said. “It was also great for our current student-athletes to learn about the history of women’s athletics and celebrate Title IX.”

Sophomore softball player Meghan Kapp said, “What better way to learn about this than directly from women who were a part of it right here in our local college community.” – Matt Lovell

Conan Young

Isabella Cercone

MATT LOVELL

By KIMBERLY WEINBERG

MAKE OUR DAY

In the heart of the George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building, students from all parts of campus are welcome to channel their inner inventors.

Photographs by Aaron Straus, Glenn Melvin ’04 and Kimberly Weinberg

On a winter night shortly after the George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building opened, the makerspace was humming.

Aaron Straus, the university’s inaugural creative engineering coordinator, was showing students how to use a 3D laser printer to make – well, whatever they wanted.

At a sewing machine about 24 feet away on the other side of the room, a student was helping another hem her gown for the upcoming winter formal. At a table nearby,

Nursing students Ashyah Baylis of Lancaster, Pa., front, and Mike Griffin of Claymont, Del., designed and made T-shirts in the makerspace for the Diamond Steppers, Pitt-Bradford’s step team.

a student using a wheelchair maneuvered easily under a work station to work on another garment for the formal, one that let them design an outfit that not only worked with their wheelchair but also mixed masculine and feminine styles.

More students wandered in the open door, saying that Straus had invited them for coffee. (Homemade lattes and cappuccinos being one of the approaches he uses to help students feel welcome to the space for the first time.)

One of them, Jameela Joseph, a senior biology major from Harrisburg, Pa., picked

up items lying out on the tables to examine them with interest. These items were the next crumb Straus had dropped on the trail. Each is a project created by students Straus worked with in a secondary school environment

– a xylophone made of wood and copper tubing cut with a band saw; a prosthetic hand made up of parts printed on the 3D printers; a miniature robot arm made up of parts printed on the 3D printers and wired to a circuit board printed in the makerspace as well; a crude wooden pinball machine that lights up when a steel ball connects a circuit; and (because … college

students) a laser tag set.

If the makerspace had existed earlier in her college career, Joseph mused, she might have switched her major.

Another senior biology major, Kimberly Goodwin of Aurora, Ill., echoed Joseph’s thoughts as she printed out a 3D soccer ball. Her mom had studied both industrial engineering and nursing. Holding the bright orange soccer ball, she pondered that if she had been exposed to a space like the makerspace earlier, perhaps she would have studied engineering herself.

Such is the power of the makerspace.

What is a makerspace?

If you don’t make it often to the public library or have children in school, you might not be familiar with the idea of makerspaces, which are public spaces that provide technical tools for the creation of physical objects.

In the early 2000s, public libraries led the movement by investing in physical spaces that offered 3D printers, laser cutters and microcomputers for use by patrons. As technology advanced and prices for the resources dropped, more libraries created makerspaces that encouraged sharing knowledge and collaboration. In the utopian atmosphere of public libraries, the culture became as much a part of makerspaces as the gadgets.

Soon educators realized

the potential of makerspaces for encouraging creativity, teaching problem solving, engaging students, and promoting science, technology, engineering, and math, and they began appearing in public schools. Many of today’s college students have already worked in makerspaces before arriving on campus.

How does the makerspace benefit students?

In short, the makerspace allows more students to apply their learning to creating physical objects, an act that reinforces their learning and presents the practical challenges of production. Straus hopes that it’s not long before he has theater students creating props and anatomy students 3D printing models. Instead of using ink, these “printers” layer materials – ranging from biodegradable plastic to carbon fiber – to create three-dimensional models. Engineering students can use these printers to create prototypes of their designs. A circuit board printer, soldering station and laser engraver give students even more options.

When Matthew Copfer, a senior sociology student from Union City, Pa., showed up in the makerspace early in its first semester, it changed the trajectory of his future.

An enthusiastic player of Dungeons & Dragons and a Pokémon fan, Copfer wanted to construct a

At top, senior biology major Fatima Saccoh sews in the makerspace. Below, Matthew Copfer shows off the dice rollers he designed that have changed his career trajectory.

sculpture of his favorite character from the Pokémon show that would also be a fair-play dice roller for D&D. With help from Straus, Copfer created the roller, but once he used it, he discovered there were changes he would like to make.

“I’ve been working with Professor Straus to improve it,” he said. Thus began his journey of tinkering –prototyping, printing and improving – to advance the roller’s design. It’s a process often referred to as rapid prototyping.

“I thought it was a great way to learn something new, and this is the perfect place for it,” Copfer said.

His interaction with engineering students in the neighboring machine shop ignited his interest in another opportunity: a 12-week intensive summer machinist and CNC (computer numerical control) program at the University of Pittsburgh at Titusville’s Education and Training Hub. Consequently, he joined a cohort of Pitt-Bradford engineering students commuting to the program this summer.

For senior computer information systems and technology student Tyler Babinski, the makerspace allowed him to realize a project that would otherwise remain a concept-- building a weather station capable of transmitting data to the National Weather Service.

Babinski’s father grew up in rural Virginia and retired to farm after a

military career, so Babinski had firsthand experience with unpredictable weather patterns affecting crops. “I’ve seen the crops wither away,” he said. “[Bradford] really lacks access to its own [weather] data. After the [Bradford Regional] airport, there’s nothing.”

So, he set out to build a weather station with sensors that will collect data every 30 seconds to report to the Civil Weather Observation Program.

“I went to [Straus] with a crazy idea, and he said, ‘Sure, of course.’ Up until right now, I never could have done this.” One of the problems at hand was creating a box that would protect the station while also allowing it to measure the weather.

Using the resources in the makerspace, Babinski designed and printed a protective box for the weather station capable of withstanding harsh weather conditions.

“This building will be where awesome ideas come to life,” he said.

What’s in the space?

The makerspace is named in memory of Harry R. Halloran Jr. and in honor of Halloran Philanthropies and American Refining Group Inc. In December, Halloran Philanthropies made a $700,000 gift to the universi-

ty to furnish the makerspace and the fluid dynamics lab.

The makerspace now holds basic and more advanced 3D printers, such as those that can print in multiple colors, multiple materials and carbon fiber. One prints items with independent articulation, such as a model car with wheels that spin, without having to print the items separately and then assemble them.

There is a vacuum former, laser engraver and circuit board printer as well as a sewing machine and T-shirt press. For wood and metal, students can work with Straus in the adjacent machine shop and fabrication lab to precision cut anything from a dowel to a sheet of steel.

Goodwin, the biology major who printed a 3D soccer ball, said, “You really can make anything.”

“ This building will be where awesome ideas come to life.”

–Tyler Babinski ’23

Tyler Babinski solders the weather station he made for his capstone project.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

The two-story atrium of the Duke Building offers a lightfilled place for students to gather, study and collaborate.

ACCOMPLISHED

With the opening of the George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building, Pitt-Bradford has been able to launch a program leaders have sought for more than 30 years –a baccalaureate engineering degree.

By KIMBERLY WEINBERG

Photographs by Glenn Melvin ’04, Aaron Straus, Alan Hancock ’07 and Kimberly Weinberg

HUNDREDS GATHERED

for the dedication of the George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building in March at an event that hearkened back to industry partnerships with the University of Pittsburgh that brought the campus into being in the first place.

The new building is named in honor of George B. Duke, owner of Zippo Manufacturing Co. and the third generation of his family to generously support Pitt-Bradford.

He and other industry leaders spoke about the building and the innovative programs it houses –mechanical engineering technology, energy engineering technology and computer information systems and technology – as crucial for the future of man-

ufacturing in the region.

“Our equipment wears out,” he said in his talk to the industry, community and university leaders gathered for the dedication. “When a piece wears out, there are a lot of things we consider. The pieces that come in are very, very complicated, and they take engineers to keep running, and that’s not just at Zippo.”

As experienced baby boomers retire, manufacturers are concerned about attracting new workers with the technical skills needed in modern industry.

“The problem we have is an economic problem,” Rick Esch, president of PittBradford, said to a group of executives from Zippo the previous month on a tour of the building. “These programs give the region

an opportunity for us to grow our own workers with the knowledge and skills needed.”

With that in mind, PittBradford worked with local industries when designing its two new engineering technology majors. Launching those majors, which enrolled their first students last fall, required the construction of the $24.5 million, 40,000 square-foot building where students cannot only design items, but also fabricate and evaluate them.

Dr. Matt Kropf, associate professor of engineering technology, designed the two new engineering technology programs and serves as the director of the Harry R. Halloran Jr./ARG Energy Institute.

“I knew this outcome was inevitable from before my career even started,” Kropf said at the dedication, telling a story about how, at his job interview 12 years before, Harry R. Halloran, the late owner of American Refining Group Inc. mentioned starting a four-year engineering program. Dr. Richard E. McDowell, former president and president emeritus of Pitt-Bradford, followed up by taking Kropf by the arm at the first reception he attended, and told him about the need. And he heard it from industry leaders for 12 years.

Drawing up the blueprint Pitt-Bradford had had a two-year engineering

Chris Napoleon ’86-’88, left, founder of Napoleon Engineering Services, served as a consultant to Dr. Matt Kropf, right, associate professor of engineering technology, as he wrote the curricula for the engineering technology programs.

Transfer energy engineering technology student Mychal Berlinski told those gathered at the dedication: “My 265-person class went to a dozen. I felt like I could raise my hand any time I had a question.”

program since its founding and continued to have a successful two-year program that gave young engineers a smaller and more personalized start to their careers. Despite the decades-long interest by Bradford leaders in starting a four-year program at the Bradford campus, approval did not come from the University of Pittsburgh to build a new program until about seven years ago.

It was a move from focusing on engineering – designing and developing items – to engineering technology – dealing with the direct application of technology – that cleared a path for Pitt to approve a four-year program on the Bradford campus in 2016.

Kropf had written the new curricula while consulting with others. One of the people Kropf and others consulted with was Chris Napoleon ’86-’88, who had been one of those students who went on to finish his four-year degree at the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

Napoleon used his Pitt degree to start Napoleon Engineering Services in his garage in 1997. Today, the company employs more than 50 people who service the global aerospace, agriculture, renewable energy, drive train and racing industries. NES specializes in manufacturing custom bearings and inspecting and testing bearings. NES is a premier supplier in the com-

mercial space market, where its bearings are used in critical propulsion systems.

Napoleon has also been involved in the Pitt-Bradford Alumni Association, served two terms as its president and served on the Pitt-Bradford Advisory Board.

“I got asked a lot of questions by (then-president) Dr. (Livingston) Alexander and others on the cabinet about my opinions for the need in the region and whether I felt that a four-year engineering program could be successful,” he said. “My responses were always that industry has a need and that it would be successful, but that we just needed to get the engagement of the manufacturing base.”

Napoleon met with Kropf about the curriculum and compared it to other curricula that he knew were similar and successful at the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology and Alfred (N.Y.) State College. Napoleon employs 10 engineers

from the latter who have been successful in his business.

“I knew that if Pitt-Bradford would go down this path, that our region would benefit,” he said, adding that even with the program at Alfred (N.Y.) State, there are enough high school students interested in engineering to fill it and definitely enough employers interested in hiring them.

“We need to develop our employment base from within our communities,” he said. “It’s much easier to engage a young person and share with them the great things that we do with our advanced manufacturing in our region than to bring engineers in from Pittsburgh or other schools.”

Constructing a program

Skip forward a half dozen years to the opening of the Duke Building in January and the first engineering students who are in the building most of the 17 hours a day that it is open.

George B. Duke, namesake of the Duke Building, admires a panther carved from a tree that was removed to accomodate construction. “This is a second-to-none facility,” he said at the building’s dedication. “People will be banging the doors to get in this place.”

“I knew that if Pitt-Bradford would go down this path, that our region would benefit.”

—Chris Napoleon ’86-’88

They are writing manuals for the equipment in the machine shop; they are helping Kropf and President Rick Esch give tours to donors, industry leaders and educators; they are working on a go-kart in the student innovation project lab; and they are studying in the common spaces of the two-story triangular atrium at the center of the building.

From the atrium, students also can see what is happening in the glasswalled makerspace and fabrication lab and an

industrial-grade machine shop beyond or grab one of the small-group study rooms warmed by the sun each morning. In the afternoons and evenings, students from all majors (especially pre-medicine) fill the rooms, where they can cover a whiteboard with diagrams of the cell or plug their computer into a large wall display to work on a project together.

The students are not the only ones enjoying the new building. Dr. Michael Liu, assistant professor of me-

chanical engineering technology, was excited about the new fluid mechanics lab. “It’s very exciting because it’s very rare that you get to build a lab from nothing.”

As part of their studies, engineering technology students are taking technical calculus and hands-on classes with labs in machine shop, electrical technology, fluid mechanics, strength of materials, computer-aided design, manufacturing and more. Classes are structured less around theory and more around applications.

Bob Ellison ‘99, systems architect and a member of the computer information systems and technology faculty, works with a student in the VR lab.

Mechanical engineering technology student Gabriel Slocum, center, works on a project while Matt Copfer and David Niegowski look on. The three took advantage of a summer program at the PittTitusville Hub to learn machining.

“It’s very exciting because it’s very rare that you get to build a lab from nothing.”

—Dr. Michael Liu, assistant professor

“Our students will know not only how to design something, but they will also understand how it is manufactured and the ma-

chines that something is manufactured on,” Kropf said.

For many students, this firsthand method of

learning is a big part of the attraction of Pitt-Bradford, as is another attribute baked into Pitt-Bradford academics: small classes.

Junior Mychal Berlinski, an energy engineering technology major from nearby Allegany, N.Y., also spoke at the building’s dedication, telling the story of how he graduated from high school into the pandemic and attending a large aerospace engineering program online.

In his sophomore year, Berlinski was able to attend classes in person, but he

Retired engineering faculty Dr. Ron Mattis, center, and Dr. Klaus Wuersig, right, chat in the machine shop during tours of the Duke Building at its dedication. The two professors helped write equipment specifications for the labs.

couldn’t always make it to faculty office hours for extra help, and there were 265 students in his Physics II class.

“I wasn’t ready to fail out of engineering just yet,” he said. He turned for advice to a friend’s dad, Chris Napoleon, who told him about the new program at Pitt-Bradford, where he enrolled.

“Very quickly I realized this was a lot different,” Berlinski said. “Everyone went at their own pace. My 265-person class went to a dozen. I felt like I could raise my hand any time I had a question.”

The products

The final products of this endeavor are not just an

exciting building and meaningful employment for young technically minded people. The Duke Building and the engineering programs that occupy it will make possible the highly educated workforce that area manufacturers cannot exist without.

Timothy Van Horn is the executive vice president of operations at Zippo. “This is exactly what we need in this area,” he said of the engineering technology programs. “Some of the newer technology meshed with the traditional is fantastic.”

Van Horn is anxious for Zippo to begin hosting interns from the programs – so anxious in fact that

A virtual experience in the VR lab delighted University of Pittsburgh Provost Dr. Ann Cudd during the Duke Building’s dedication.

Dr. Beth Rezaie, assistant professor of mechanical engineering technology, fills equipment in the fluid mechanics lab, which also features a wind tunnel.

the company hired its first mechanical engineering technology intern from Pitt-Bradford in the spring semester and kept him on for the summer.

Interns are attractive, Van Horn explained, because it gives a company a chance to see how they collaborate with their peers and suppliers under pressure. “At times, projects don’t go as planned,” Van Horn said. “We want to know how these young engineers are going to interact.”

Zippo currently employs several dozen engineers, and Van Horn said automating areas of its manufacturing are part of its strategic

plan. As technical workers with years of experience retire, the company will be looking for employees who can program and work with automation equipment and understand their capabilities and limitations.

Kropf is seeing a lot of enthusiasm from others across the local manufacturing sector. He said that when giving a tour of the facility, the chief executive officer will often hand him, or even a student met along the way, a business card.

“For CEOs to be handing out their personal business cards is a sign,” he said.

Another Pitt-Bradford program helping area employers has moved into the Duke Building alongside the new engineering technology programs: computer information systems and technology.

It is a program with a similar ethos of innovation, collaboration and just

having fun tinkering with technology. Some members of the information technology adjunct faculty have day jobs working in the university’s Computing, Telecommunications and Media Services Office, which also has moved into a spacious new home in the Duke Building.

The information technology graduates are now staffing, sometimes entirely, the technology services of local industries both in and out of the manufacturing sector. Pitt-Bradford information technology graduates are critical to the operation of not just McKean County’s largest, Zippo, but also hospitals, schools, government offices and the university itself, where all the employees of the CTM office are also alumni.

Students from all majors flock to the building’s small group study rooms in the evenings.

“Our students will know not only how to design something, but they will also understand how it is manufactured and the machines that something is manufactured on.”

—Dr. Matt Kropf, associate professor of engineering technology

BEST of BOTH WORLDS

By KIMBERLY

Before it was open to the public, faculty, staff, students and retirees got a sneak peek inside the George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building.

Among the most excited was Don Lewicki, founder of the computer information systems and technology program and former supervisor of the Computing, Telecommunications and Media services. Both the academic program and the vital office were moved to the new building, where they have

substantially roomier digs.

Lewicki retired in the summer of 2021 when plans for the building were still in the works, but he’d already had a chance to consult on what was needed to help one of the campus’s most popular programs grow even more.

Touring the building’s extensive makerspace that gives information technology students the opportunity to 3D print, solder and print circuit boards, he was asked if it made him want to come out of retirement.

“Yes, it does,” he said after a brief hesitation.

The makerspace is new, but other spaces that computer information systems and technology students use are so much more radically different than the cramped labs they had occupied in the campus’s hangar building as to be unrecognizable.

Later, Lewicki took a private tour with members of the CTM staff who teach in the academic program: Bob Ellison ’99, systems architect; Steve Ellison ’01, systems analyst; and Bill Kline ’86, who succeeded Lewicki as director of CTM Services. They were accompanied by Dr. Ken Wang, who succeeded Lewicki as the director of the academic program, and Dr. Richard E. McDowell, president emeritus and a longtime supporter of the program.

On the ground floor, a room painted black is full of Alienware desktops, individual display screens and large display screens for each pod of five students, which

allows them to easily share what they are working on in a group. Instructors have a large display monitor at the front, and at the back is a space with giant screen and track for motion capture and projection of what someone is seeing through virtual reality goggles. This room will be the playground of instructor Jeremy Callinan ’04 and his students as they create, test and evaluate immersive virtual reality and augmented reality applications that are a fast-growing field.

“I can’t even complete a thought because there’s so much going on in here,” Lewicki said. “You’ve got to have a place where students

WEINBERG Photographs by Glenn Melvin ’04

Don Lewicki, left, and Dr. Richard E. McDowell, president emeritus, pose with the new lab named in Lewicki’s honor.

Information technology

can think and be creative.”

Upstairs is another special lab first envisioned by Lewicki and Steve Ellison, the systems, networks and projects lab, known on campus as the SNAP Lab. “I learned [when I was working] at IBM, that everything has to have an acronym,” Lewicki joked.

Inside, he admired a room with workbenches where no more than a dozen students can work on hardware. Seen through a glass partition in the back of the room are server racks.

“They’re building the back end of the cloud in there,” Steve Ellison said, referring to how his students

are creating a small setup that delivers storage space and software remotely.

In the SNAP Lab students in networking classes create a server setup for a small business. Each student has their own “rack” to build their own small server farm. For the final examination, Steve Ellison sabotages the servers with the kinds of problems information technology people deal with all the time – power outages, cyberattacks or a system overload. Students must then repair their creations.

It’s the kind of practical thinking that Lewicki liked to instill in students.

“Everything is hands-on

collaboration,” he said. “If you have a good student, you need to give them a good project.”

So, it was only right that as Lewicki toured the new home of the computer information systems and technology program and came across the reimagined SNAP lab, he saw that it was named in his honor.

Lewicki was visibly moved.

“You left us quite a legacy here, Don,” Pitt-Bradford President Richard T. Esch told him.

Lewicki said, “We’ve had a lot of successful students, and I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

One of those former

students is Donny Kemick ’04, who is the president and chief executive officer of protocol 80, which started after his graduation as a website design and custom web application development firm to an inbound marketing agency. In May, he and his wife, Amanda Wentworth Kemick ’04, set up the Donald C. Lewicki Technology Fund, which will provide student scholarships.

For more information about the Lewicki Technology Fund or to contribute, contact the Office of Philanthropic and Alumni Engagement at 814-3625091 or upb.pitt.edu/giving.

Faculty, staff and retirees enjoyed their own tours of the Duke Building when it opened in January.

labs give students experience in creating virtual reality and working hands-on

PANTHER PACK

1960s

Susan Eckstein ’65-’67 retired as clinical director of Josselyn Center. She lives in Wheeling, Ill.

Terry Stock ’66-’68 is the owner of a new business, TC Ventures. He lives in Ocala, Fla.

Jean Bozenhard Stone ’66-’68 published the sixth book in her popular Vineyard series, “A Vineyard Season,” in April. She is the author of nearly 20 novels about contemporary women that have been published by Random House and Harper Collins.

1970s

Eileen Graham ’69-’70 is a retired teacher of 34 years. She and her husband, Charles, are proud grandparents of two granddaughters, aged 3 and 6. Since 1970, she has been a volunteer at the Philadelphia Folk Festival,

If you have an update for Portraits magazine, visit www.upbalumni.org and click on “How to update your info” or email us at Portraits@pitt.edu.

which raises money to fund music in schools across the city. She lives in Eagleville, Pa.

Jacqueline Grimenstein ’69-’71 retired last year after 48 years as a pediatric physical therapist. She lives in Audubon, N.J.

Wild Rose Press published the debut novel of Judy Hopkins ’71-’73, “Babe in the Woods,” under the name Jude Hopkins in June. Hopkins drew on her own experiences working at Capitol Records in Hollywood, Calif., and returning to her hometown of Bradford. “This book is wom-

en’s fiction with a touch of romance,” Hopkins told The Bradford Era. “My protagonist is determined to be the one in charge in her next relationship. She is looking for a man who not only cooks but does all the dishes.”

John ’72-’74 and Marie Seltzer ’72-’73 have a new grandchild, their fourth: Leo George Seltzer was born March 27. They live in Pittsburgh.

Carlyle Conn ’73-’75 is a sales specialist for Steel & O’Brien Manufacturing Co. He lives in Mount Jewett, Pa.

Brian Aquilante ’74-’76 retired from being a physical therapist for Manor Care. He lives in Souderton, Pa.

1980s

Bill Kline ’86, director of Computing, Telecommunications and Media Services at Pitt-Bradford, received the Staff Recognition Award from colleagues in the PittBradford Staff Association. In the nomination letter, his colleague wrote, in part, “He is very good at knowing when to be that hands-off leader who lets his workers take the reins in their area of expertise while also jumping in and taking the bull by the horns when his presence is paramount.”

1990s

William Wright ’88-’90 has a new job as a senior remedia-

tion engineer for AECOM engineering company. He lives in Grove City, Pa.

T. Eric Lucks ’91 is the new purchasing-operations manager for the Howmet Aerospace plant in Niles, Ohio.

Barbara Shurilla ’91 retired from teaching as a reading specialist in the Salamanca (N.Y.) City schools. She lives in Great Valley, N.Y.

Heidi Hartley ’92 is a volunteer firefighter and EMT in the Town of Cuba (N.Y.), where she lives. She’s also a certified lab instructor to teach practical and hands-on skills to EMT students for Cattaraugus County (N.Y.) Emergency Services.

James “Sappy” Saporito ’92 is celebrating 25 years working for Costco Wholesale. He has recently been transferred to the Washington, D.C., store location as assistant general manager and invites friends to stop and say “hi” when they’re in the store. He lives in Odenton, Md.

Gale Shay ’93 has a new degree and a promotion with the Veteran’s Administration, where she is now Dr. Gale Shay, Women’s Mental Health/Military Sexual Trauma Coordinator at the James E. Van Zandt Veterans’ Administration Medical Center in Altoona, Pa. Shay has earned her doctorate in social work. In her new job, she works with the community,

Craig Hartburg ’73-’75

(standing) congratulates George Repchick ’82 on receiving the Presidential Medal of Distinction during Commencement exercises in April. Repchick, a serial entrepreneur and healthcare executive, also served as the Commencement speaker.

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provides education to staff and medical providers, performs clinical assessments and provides therapy, among other duties.

Ryan Pugh ’98 was promoted to editor of The Clarion News. He lives in Parker, Pa.

2000s

Kacie Sutton ’02 was promoted to vice president of operations at R.F. Peck Co. She lives in Rochester, N.Y.

Buffy Merrick ’03 is teaching first and second grade at The Learning Center in Bradford.

Jeremy Callinan ’04 started a new position as IT manager for American Refining Group Inc. in Bradford.

Amy Moffatt ’08 has been promoted to assistant vice president of admissions at Towson University in Maryland.

Kimberly Rublee Masone ’09 and her husband, Jim, moved to Erie, Pa., where she now works at Mercyhurst University.

Jen Snow ’09 earned her doctorate in education with a specialization in the mind, brain and teaching at Johns Hopkins University. She has been teaching at Otto-Eldred (Pa.) Junior-Senior High School and will now join the faculty in the education program at Alfred (N.Y.) University.

Seeking justice for others

Elizabeth Wright ‘19 gives voice to incarcerated people

Elizabeth Wright ’19 may be new to the field of law, but her endeavors have led her to high-profile class-action work with national and international news coverage.

Wright graduated from Syracuse University Law School in 2022 and went to work with New, Taylor and Associates in Beckley, W.Va., where she became involved in a class action lawsuit against the Southern Regional Jail in West Virginia.

The case involves imprisoned people in a regional West Virginia jail where those incarcerated alleged civil rights violations after 13 imprisoned individuals died at the facility in 2022 alone.

“It’s been exciting to do the work I have been doing,” she said. “I helped write a [friendof-the-court] brief to the U.S. Supreme Court. They didn’t grant certiorari, but I like to think they read what we wrote.” Certiorari is when The Court decides it will hear the case, which is rare in most cases.

A friend of the court, in legal parlance, is a person or group with an interest and perspective on an outcome.

“It’s been an honor to work on this case,” Wright said. “It is an area I wanted to work in. … I am fortunate to have this experience and work on this team.”

Under the U.S. code, anyone violating the Constitutional rights of people can be found liable.

A March 19 article in The Guardian quotes Stephen New of the firm describing conditions akin to a Russian gulag. Overcrowding and abuse claimed by the firm to be

ALUMNIFOCUS

rampant in the facility in its briefs.

“These are people that are in jail. They did do something wrong that they are paying for, but the conditions are much more severe (than they should be),” said Wright. “I am proud of the work I have done for people who otherwise wouldn’t have a voice.”

Write said the class actions evolved from clients describing conditions.

Increased complaints were becoming common, and it started to become obvious that something was very wrong.

“There are now 2,0003,000 clients who suffered harm in the facility,” she said. “I think it’s so important that we do this work. That we expose what these people have suffered, that we spur change.”

Write is proud of the civil rights work she has been involved with in the firm of New, Taylor, & Associates in West Virginia. She cites the time at Pitt-Bradford as having helped build her experiences.

“I had excellent professors and really good work experience that have served me well,” she said. “Professor (Tony) Gaskew in particular has been a wonderful teacher and mentor that has guided my way.”

“I became interested in helping those who can’t help themselves when I attended Pitt-Bradford,” said Wright. “I worked for the area YWCA and did work at [the Federal Correctional Institution, McKean.] There were domestic abuse victims that I assisted. I felt it was so important to help people who couldn’t help themselves.”

– Cory Angell ’97

PANTHER PACK

2010s

Erica Antonuccio ’11 is a registered nurse at State Correctional Institution Forest in Marienville, Pa. She lives in Sheffield, Pa.

Caitlin Catalfu ’11 has a new role at Penn State Behrend in Erie, Pa., where she is an academic adviser in the exploratory and pre-major advising office. In December, she completed a Master’s of Education in higher education through Penn State.

Meghan Hernandez ’11 earned her Master of Business Administration with a concentration in analytics from Bloomsburg University in May.

Jenna Prechtl Suppa ’11 has a

new position as process safety coordinator/environmental health and safety leader at United Refining Co. in Warren, Pa.

Chisé Diacik Archdeacon ’12 was married in March 2022. She and her husband welcomed their first child in December. The family lives in Nazareth, Pa.

Erika Braeger ’12 was promoted to senior search engine optimization strategist at Directive, a customer generation agency.

Amanda Fox ’12 was awarded the Inspiration in Service Award by the Event Services Professionals Association. She is director of event services for Visit Rochester (N.Y.). The

Delivering the goods

award recognizes an event services professional whose leadership in the past year has been an inspiration to others. Fox’s accomplishments cited for the award included spearheading diversity, equity and inclusive initiatives by creating a committee that trained more than 450 members of the Rochester hospitality industry on best practices in inclusivity.

Tyler Schnebel ’15 became a certified public accountant in January and moved into a new job as finance director of Savvy Marketing Group. He lives in Evans City, Pa.

Kyle Viola ’15 has been named director of conference and event services at Pitt-

Nicki Kellogg ’14 uses CPR experience to save life of FedEX coworker

After three days without news, Nicki Kellogg ’14 was anticipating the worst but felt relief when her boss confirmed that the colleague whom she had performed CPR on days prior was recuperating after a heart attack.

“It took a long time for me to believe them. He survived, and it was the best ending I could hope for, but it was an emotional roller coaster of a week,” she said.

In November, Kellogg helped an unresponsive colleague while on the job at a FedEx warehouse, where she is an operations manager for FedEx Ground in Zelienople – a suburb of Pittsburgh.

She was 30 minutes into a typical shift when a co-worker rushed to find her to tell her that a package handler had collapsed in the trailer he was unloading. Kellogg was used to helping people experiencing heat exhaustion and blood sugar dips, but this scenario was different.

“I [was] in panic mode at this point and tapping him and shaking him,” she said. “I didn’t feel a pulse.” Kellogg per-

Bradford, where he had been conference services manager since 2021. He lives in Bradford with his wife, Alicia, and son, Henry.

Lisa Marie Cook ’17 has a new job as a mental health clinician at Connecting Communities in Action in Salamanca, N.Y.

Dr. Charles Norman ’17 was promoted to the associate director of leadership, engagement and experiential development at The Johns Hopkins University.

Christine Brunecz ’18 earned her master’s degree in infectious diseases through Drexel University School of Medicine.

Devonte Sadler ’18 will be

formed CPR before another person brought her a portable automated external defibrillator. She performed four rounds of defibrillation before an ambulance arrived and whisked the package handler off to the hospital.

Performing CPR can be a traumatic experience, but for Kellogg, the scenario served as a reminder: “Pay attention to people in your surroundings, including their mental health and physical health. This experience made me care even more about people in my life.”

As a manager at FedEx, Kellogg had to learn CPR, but she also had been trained when she worked as a probation officer and was in the police academy.

Kellogg grew up in New York state near Bradford and was introduced to Pitt-Bradford during a field trip with a technical program that she took part in during high school.

As a student, Kellogg was a resident adviser, a speaker during Coming Out for Equality Day, and a Vira I. Heinz Program scholar, which enabled her to study gender,

PANTHER PACK

matriculating into medical school at Rosalind Franklin University in Chicago this fall.

Isaiah Sandroni ’18 has been promoted to sustainability and key account manager at Greiner Packaging, where he has worked for three years.

Joseph Adcock ’19 was recently promoted to solutions executive at Ingram Micro Inc. He lives in East Amherst, N.Y.

Carly Cuthbertson ’19 married Matt Lama in March at the Kane (Pa.) Manor.

2020s

Tateana Hayes ’20 has a new job as a digital content and marketing specialist with

Logan Health. She lives in Kalispell, Mont.

Brendon Kelley ’20 was nominated for the Bradford Area Chamber of Commerce Community and Spirit Award. He is a coach for the Bradford Regional Little League and an active member of the Bradford Community Pride Lions Club. He also enjoys volunteering for the chamber. He is a universal associate at CNB Bank in Bradford.

Christina “Chrissy” Pfeil ’20 earned her Master of Education in secondary education: history at Slippery Rock University. She works as projects and operations manager in the School for Public Purpose and Professional Advancement at

sexuality, and human trafficking abroad for the first time in Copenhagen.

She graduated from the university in 2014 with a major in criminal justice and a minor in women’s studies and had intended to become a police officer. However, after working as a probation officer, attending the police academy, and getting married, Kellogg decided to change her career path.

“FedEx landed in my life because my wife got a job in Grove City (Pa.). We had to move, and I had to find a job immediately,” she said.

Kellogg now oversees more than 40 employees on any given day and logs about 13 miles on her Fitbit each shift. “I’ve had leadership roles since high school, but this is the first one that I feel like a leader and feel motivated,” she said.

Kellogg’s responsiveness and life-saving actions earned her the FedEx Humanitarian Award.

“I would like to keep moving up in FedEx and finish my master’s and become a senior manager,” she said. Kellogg also plans to continue to give back to the Pitt-Bradford student body, which enabled her to be where she is today.

“Pitt-Bradford gave a lot to me. So anytime I can [give back], I’ll take it.” — Maya Bingaman ’19

Albion (Mich.) College. This fall, she will begin working toward a Ph.D. in curriculum, instruction and teacher education at Michigan State University, where she has been awarded both an academic excellence fellowship and a graduate assistantship.

Claire Saylor ’20 has been building on the skills she learned as a student leader at Pitt-Bradford. An optometry student at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, she was recently honored as the American Optometric Student Association’s Trustee of the Year for the 2022-23 academic year.

Anuja Sharma ’20 earned her master’s degree in ethics,

peace and human rights from American University.

Miles Davis-Matthews ’21 finished his first year in the doctoral program in sociology at Kent State University, where he has been fully funded with a graduate assistantship. In spring of this year, he worked with a think tank in Washington, D.C., called Data for Progress conducting a research project exploring the experiences of LGBTQ+ folks living in the rural South. The report on the study authored by Davis-Matthews was featured in The Advocate, the largest and oldest LGBT publication in the United States.

Since graduating, Dominick Giannini ’21 has been learning Russian at the

ALUMNIFOCUS

PANTHER PACK

Nadiya Andrews ’23 is a lab intern at Johnson & Johnson in Media, Pa.

Lillian Baldwin ’23 is an RN supervisor at the Bradford Ecumenical Home.

Alexandra Bennardi ’23 is a universal associate at CNB in Bradford and is pursuing an online master’s degree in human resources management from Slippery Rock University.

University of Pittsburgh and teaching English in the Warren (Pa.) County School District. In addition, he is a farm manager at Lindell Farms in Russell, Pa. This fall, he will begin working toward a Master of Arts in international affairs: global governance, politics and security at American University’s School of International Service.

Ezoza Ismailova ’21 earned her master’s degree in public diplomacy and global communication from Syracuse (N.Y.) University. She is a program associate for the student leadership programs team at IREX, a global development and education organization.

Elizabeth “Izzy” Johnson ’21 graduated with a master’s degree in public policy from the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy and is working at the

Hayley Madl ’21 is enrolled in the doctoral program in history at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., where she received full funding for her studies through a presidential fellowship. Since starting her doctoral program at George Mason University, Madl has done a deep dive into the field of digital history. She is now a podcast producer at R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. As a producer, she writes and edits scripts, interviews guests, edits and mixes audio and occasionally, guest hosts. She has since blended her work in digital history and community engagement to produce episodes like Native Persistence, which looks at Indigenous communities along the Appalachian Trail. Recently, she has begun preliminary research on her dissertation

topic focusing on the Seneca Nation of Indians and the construction of the Kinzua Dam and Allegheny Reservoir.

Matt O’Brien ’21 is an invasive species specialist in the Bradford Ranger District of the Allegheny National Forest.

Alyssa Reyes ’21 recently began a position with UPMC as a rehabilitation aide on the spinal cord injury unit of UPMC Mercy. She lives in Pittsburgh.

Sam Dreistadt ’22 is a ranger at Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pa.

Maggie James ’22 is an environmental scientist for Atlas Technical Solutions in Baton Rouge, La.

Michael Miller ’22 has a new job as a lab technician at BASF. He lives in Pittsburgh.

Taylor Brooks ’23 is a medical-surgical nurse at Morristown (N.J.) Medical Center.

Sean Campbell ’23 is a business development and operations associate with the Olean (N.Y.) Business Development Corp.

Kameo Chambers ’23 is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in electronic integrated arts at Alfred (N.Y.) University.

James Dahlke ’23 is an IT support specialist at Takeform in Medina, N.Y., and a ski instructor at Holiday Valley in Ellicottville, N.Y.

Lindsey Daub ’23 will enroll this fall in the school psychology educational specialist program at Millersville University working toward a Master of Science in psychology.

Nikolas R. Erikson ’23 was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He will serve as an infantry offi-

’04

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

GLENN MELVIN

Maria Costanza Immekus ’12 (second from left) and Jenny Crytzer ’08 (center) host a roundtable discussion with current students during Backpack to Briefcase, an annual event hosted by the Pitt-Bradford Alumni Association in which alumni return to campus to share career advise and expertise with students.

ALUMNI & FAMILY WEEKEND

SEPTEMBER 22-24, 2023

WE CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND JOIN US TO CELEBRATE 60 YEARS OF PITT-BRADFORD!

TO VIEW THE FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS PLEASE VISIT UPB.PITT.EDU/AFW

PANTHER PACK

cer in the Pennsylvania National Guard as part of Charlie Company 1-112th Stryker Brigade Combat Team. He will also be a patrolman with the Allentown (Pa.) City Police.

Emily Goetz ’23 is pursuing a master’s degree in athletic training at Purdue University in Indiana.

Natali Heater ’23 is working toward a master’s degree in forensic science and toxicology from the University of Florida.

Jorj Lemay ’23 is pursuing a master’s degree in media studies and production at Temple University in

In Memoriam

Philadelphia.

Gabrielle Lewis ’23 will be enrolled this fall in the Masters of Library Science program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Taylar Mager ’23 teaches second grade at George G. Blaisdell Elementary School in Bradford.

Imani Matthews ’23 is a global finance and business analyst with JPMorgan Chase Co.

Amine Sabil ’23 is a software engineer with American Refining Group Inc. in Bradford.

Kaitlin Sexton ’23 is a physical therapy aide at Burger Rehabilitation in Elk Grove, Calif.

Tyler Stewart ’23 is a district manager for Automatic Data Processing in Coraopolis, Pa., working to streamline business operations of 1 to 49 employees. ADP offers smallbusiness owners services such as human resources, retirement plans, timekeeping, etc., to streamline business processes.

Joel Talladay ’23 is a technology and marketing assistant at Guthrie Community Credit Union. He lives in Columbia Cross Roads, Pa.

Aly Thompson ’23 is the web programmer at Pitt-Bradford, working as part of the communications and marketing team to maintain and update the university’s website. She lives in Coudersport, Pa.

Tabitha Walker ’23 is working toward a master’s degree in genetic counseling at the University of Colorado.

Miniah Willis ’23 is a graduate nurse at the University of Chicago Advent Health in LaGrange, Ill.

Zayda Wilson ’23 is an emergency department technician with Penn Medicine in Philadelphia.

Sandra Lee Blair ’84 died in January from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A Bradford native, she earned her associate of science in nursing degree from Pitt-Bradford. As a proud military spouse, she took her nursing career to hospitals all over the country, including Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida and even worked for a time at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where she was part of NASA’s Shuttle Recover Team.

Arnold “Arnie” Brunner ’63-’65 died Jan. 1. He was in the first group of students to attend Pitt-Bradford and financed his education by painting houses. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Science in forestry from Penn State in 1967 and worked for the Pennsylvania State Game Commission and as a forester. Later, he owned A-1 Rent-All Sales in Olean, N.Y., and Stoney Acres Alpaca Farm in Smethport, Pa. He was married for 51 years to his wife, Susan.

Michael Brunner ’87 died in January at his home in Sheffield, Pa. After earning his degree in petroleum technology, he worked for his uncle at Densmore Drilling, then for 25 years with Gas Field Specialists. He loved

working outdoors and at his home on the creek, where he loved to hunt and fish.

Michael Crappio ’05 died in March in Buffalo, N.Y. He served four years in the U.S. Air Force before earning his economics degree at Pitt-Bradford as a nontraditional student. At the time of his death, he was store manager for the Pennsylvania Fine Wine & Good Spirits store in Port Allegany.

Elaine Northrup ’68-’69 died at her home in Ellicottville, N.Y., in May. Born and raised in Bradford, for many years, she was the developer of The Woods at Holimont and other projects in Colorado and Florida. While attending Pitt-Bradford, she became a ski instructor at Holiday Valley Ski School. She served on Pitt-Bradford’s Advisory Board.

Adam Taylor ’17 died unexpectedly April 3 in Jacksonville, Fla. While studying at Pitt-Bradford, he was the president of Circle K International. He loved travel, studied abroad in Germany, and had a successful marketing career that had taken him to West Virginia, Las Vegas and Jacksonville.

Do you know a student who would make a great Panther?

Do you know a student who would make A GREAT PANTHER?

The Refer a Future Panther Program provides alumni the opportunity to connect prospective students with Pitt-Bradford. Referred students will be sent a package that includes exciting information about the many opportunities available on campus as well as some Pitt-Bradford swag!

The Refer a Future Panther Program provides alumni the opportunity to connect prospective students with Pitt-Bradford.

As a token of our appreciation, alumni who refer students will receive a gift. Encourage these Future Panthers and their families to visit campus and register for one of our admissions events.

Referred students will be sent a package that includes exciting information about opportunities on campus and even some Pitt-Bradford swag.

As a token of our appreciation, alumni who refer students receive a gift as well.

Refer a student. Use the QR code here or visit www.upbalumni.org/ pantherpack

TO REGISTER FOR AN ADMISSIONS EVENT, VISIT: www.upb.pitt.edu/visit-campus. www.upb.pitt.edu/visit-campus