ALUMNI
Rebecca Obert-Thorn ’01 was named the 2017 Axalta All-Pro Teacher of the Year. She is a seventhgrade science teacher at Pennwood Middle School in Yardley, PA. Chad Smith ’01, a saxophonist, was the special guest soloist during the New Holland Band’s opening season concert, “Celebrating America,” on April 8. Joseph Meade ’02 was named to the Philadelphia Business Journal’s 2018 “40 under 40” list. Meade is the chief of staff to La Salle University President Colleen M. Hanycz and executive director of government and community affairs at the university. Donald Shorter Jr. ’02 was featured in a performance on May 31 in NYC. Ryan Staub ’02 was hired as the new principal of Neshaminy High School. Andrea Wehler ’02 was appointed creative director of Transwestern to oversee all marketing and communications initiatives in the commercial real estate firm’s North Texas operations. Wehler will be responsible for overall creative strategy, business development, brand management, media relations, and internal communications.
ALUMNI
Benito County, CA, Chamber of Commerce. Jill Gleeson ’04 was named the 2017-18 Teacher of the Year at Watchung Hills Regional High School in Warren, NJ. Jennifer Rossi Long ’05 was named the director of the Twardowski Career Development Center at West Chester University. Gregory Offner Jr. ’05 was elected to a four-year term as a Democratic committee person in Philadelphia, PA. Offner will represent the approximately 600 constituents of Ward 39 Division 31 while serving as a member of the City Democratic Executive Committee. This is his first time in elected office. Offner is a director of Exude Inc, a Philadelphia-based organizational health and strategy company.
Nathan Mohler ’09 was named the 2018-19 Teacher of the Year at Indian River High School in Dagsboro, DE.
2010s Kiera Smalls ’11 was named executive director at Philly Startup Leaders. Erin Dorney M’12 published her debut collection of poetry, I Am Not Famous Anymore, with Mason Jar Press (Baltimore, MD).
NJ, police officer in April at a City Council meeting. Anthony LaFratte ’15, joined Belfint, Lyons & Shuman, PA, as a staff II accountant in the rotational development program. Caitlin Cheruka ’16 is running across America to fight against cancer. She hopes to raise a dollar for each of the 4,500 miles she runs from San Francisco to Baltimore. She will run 10 to 16 miles per day for 49 days and stay at community centers, churches, and college dorms while also camping in national parks. Her father was diagnosed with prostate cancer and both grandparents on one side of her family passed from cancer.
Jason Smith ’05 recently published To Master the Boundless Sea with UNC Press.
Brittany Rosenfeld ’12 joined the Tredyffrin Township, PA, Police Department.
Kayleigh Jardine ’16 was one of four singers to perform the national anthem prior to the Michigan and Loyola-Chicago NCAA Final Four game on Saturday, March 31. Jardine is a University of Michigan graduate student.
Michelle Mongiovi Prota ’06 was featured in “15+ Women In Leadership Roles at Awesome Companies You’ll Want to Work For” on FindSpark. Prota currently serves as global chief talent officer at Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners in NYC.
Natalie Dietterich ’14 will have compositions performed by the New York Youth Symphony (NYYS) during the upcoming 2018-2019 season.
Tyler Starr ’16 recently earned his certified public accountant (CPA) license. Starr is a staff I accountant at Belfint, Lyons & Shuman in its rotational developmental program.
Christina Diehl ’03 was named president of the Lancaster County Library System.
Kyle Mullins ’07 won the Democratic primary for state representative in Pennsylvania’s 112th District in Lackawanna County.
Jonathan Long ’03 was named a 2018 Top Lawyer by Main Line Today magazine. Long serves clients at Buckley, Brion, McGuire & Morris, LLP’s litigation and governmental/ municipal land use practice groups.
Mary Shuttlesworth M’07 served on the Academic Honors Society panel discussion held each spring semester by the Mount Aloysius College Academic Honors Societies Committee on February 8.
Ana Putegnat ’03 was named the new executive director of the San
Matt Weiser ’07 was inducted into the Berks County Aquatic Hall of Fame.
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Matt Holliday ’09 was honored with the 2018 Outstanding Young Professional Award in Public Administration from the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (CPC-ASPA). Holliday is the sitting prothonotary of Chester County.
Philip Hagstotz ’14 was recently hired as a police patrol officer for the Hatfield Township, PA, Police Department. Josh Kowalski ’14 was sworn in as a new Upper Makefield Township, PA, police officer. Harvey Nicholson ’14 recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence about how the abuse of opioids affects both whites and blacks equally. Julianna Rote ’14 was sworn in as a new City of Brigantine Beach,
Marriages Sandy Choi Imai ’09 to Samuel Imai in March 2018
Engagements Joanna Volpe ’13 to Josh Yoder ’13
In Memoriam 1933 Lillian Shockey Shively 1940 Anna Summers Hart 1948 Eileen Urban Scheirer 1949 Peter Mirsch 1949 Barbara Muench Smith 1952 Robert Homonay 1954 Anna Young Bjornberg 1954 Henry Loewen, Jr. 1957 Joseph Motta, Jr. 1961 Mary Anne McGinty Hague 1964 Carolyn Cooper Bream 1966 Charles Bassett 1968 Peggy Herr Grove 1968 Roger Grove 1969 David Eavenson, Jr. 1970 Grace Spaziani Ovelman 1972 Raymond Fields 1984 Kathy Bird Gouck 1994 Stephen Misetic
DEATH NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE Contact the Alumni Relations Office with a copy of the decedent’s obituary from a newspaper or the internet, or a copy of a letter or email from a family member of the deceased. Please note: Death notifications will not be accepted via telephone.
SUBMIT your class notes to the Office of Alumni Relations to alumni@wcupa.edu.
Celebrating Theatre! Forty years ago, Kurt Weill’s music filled the Studio Theatre at West Chester with the Department of Speech, Communication, and Theatre’s April 1978 production of The Threepenny Opera. Director Bob E. Bytnar and a group of theatre alumni returned to campus for the WCU production of Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill, a Musical Voyage and to celebrate the friendships forged, experiences shared, and professional skills honed through the numerous, remarkable, and memorable opportunities to perform and work in all aspects of theatre production at West Chester. Seated: Bob E. Bytnar. First row, from left to right: Ferna Majewicz, Susan Perrone Walthall ’79 M’89, Betsy Waldron Spina ’80, Paul Parente ’79, Terry Byrne Doemling ’79, Steve Mulch ’79, and Maxine J. Tiger ’78. Second row, from left to right: Michael J. Macknis ’81, Brandon Doemling ’81, Annmarie Kelly Davis ’81, Pierce Vincent Eckhart ’80.
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