ClassNotes

’79

Class Agent: Jane Luxton-Boggs

Mary Lou (Ellsworth) Condike has been a published author since retirement. She has stories in five anthologies including two Sisters in Crime North Dallas publications. Mary Lou has an agent who is working to get her a publisher for a three-book series.

’83

Class Agent: Susan A. Baskin-Gronblom

Deborah A. (Mahoney) Abasciano moved to Hilton Head, SC. She has three children and eight grandchildren.

James J. O’Day is enjoying his position on the House Speaker’s leadership team, in charge of the fourth division, after 15 years representing the 14th Worcester District as a state representative in the Massachusetts Legislature. The House is divided by seating arrangements into four sections or divisions; he is the leader of the fourth division. His job is to provide information about issues and details of proposed legislation.

Denise M. Patnod, Lic., Ac., celebrates two decades of a successful healthcare private practice in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass. She put lots of emphasis on her studies as an undergraduate at Worcester State and New England School of Acupuncture, now located in Worcester.

’84

William J. Meduski retired to Cabot, VT, after a 34-year rewarding and exciting career with the Worcester Water Department. William and his wife maintain an extensive garden, have an English shepherd, and go skiing a lot in the winter.

’87

Class Agent: Kenneth J. Brissette

Karyn A. (Turbide) Finneron is a retired RN. She was a clinical risk manager for a medical malpractice insurance company and is an adjunct professor in allied health at Quinsigamond Community College. She has also self-published seven children’s books for early readers through middle school since retirement in 2013 under the name Nana’s Stories. Her most recent book is a Celtic fantasy novel for teens. Karyn volunteers in hospice at Notre Dame Health Care and at the Worcester Senior Center, administering COVID vaccines.

’88

Class Agents: Amy L. (Favreault) Benoit, Tina M. (Manoogian) Healey

Amy C. (Batzer) Orroth has had a great career after graduating from Worcester State. She started at Worcester City Hospital and, when it closed, went to UMass Medical Center, where she tried administration for a year. Amy loves teaching and treating patients, so for more than 25 years she has worked at Massachusetts General Hospital. She has gone on a few relief trips to Honduras and Beijing. Married with three children, Amy loves to hike, ski, mountain bike, walk with her Bernese mountain dog, and spend time with friends and family on Crane Beach. ’90

Class Agents: Jeffrey L. Busha, Lawrence “Larry” M. Sasso, MS ’13

Veteran employee benefits consultant James V. Huffman Jr. has joined Alliant Insurance Services as senior vice president within its employee benefits group based in Boston. Huffman has more than 25 years of experience in the field of employee benefits and will focus on designing, implementing, and managing employee benefits solutions for a diverse national client base.

’91

Class Agents: Paul E. Cahill, Lou E. DiMuzio, Daniel M. Harrington, Catherine R. (Foppiano) McGrath, Jeffrey T. Turgeon

Catherine R. (Foppiano) McGrath is a fifth grade English language arts teacher and became a grandmother for the first time this spring with the birth of her grandson.

’92

Donna M. McCarthy, MS ’92, recently retired from AbbVie after 25 years.

Lucinda M. Theroux-Jette, PhD, OT/L, LAc, CFMP, recently achieved certification in functional medicine. She is currently the only certified functional medicine provider in the Southern New Hampshire area. She specializes in preventive care, cancer prevention, early detection of disease and dysfunction, optimal aging and healthy longevity, digestive disorders, and immune dysfunction. ’93

Class Agents: David C. Frederici, John F. Seymour

Lisa M. (Rogers) Morley has been a computer programmer for MEDITECH since graduating from Worcester State. She is now assisting her two kids on their college choices.

’96

Class Agents: Pamela A. (Anderson) Walls, N. Wolf Winset

Franchesca M. Minikon-Reece is currently assigned overseas in Oman for a few years. Her eldest son recently started his undergraduate studies at Worcester State University and is enjoying his experience being in the United States, where he hasn’t lived except for two years in elementary school. Franchesca’s other two children are in middle and high school.

’99

Class Agents: Brandon E. Frencic, Greg V. Nikiforow

Brian T. Murphrey was recently spotlighted as artist of the month in Worcester Magazine.

’01

Class Agent: Shawn Gersbach

Brian Houlihan Jr. recently started a position as northeast SLED sales director at World Wide Technology.

’03

Class Agent: Carrie A. (Stewart) Piermarini

Amy L. (Wilfong) Peterson, chief of staff in the office of the city manager of Worcester was recently named by Worcester Magazine as one of 20 Women to Watch. Amy was promoted twice within the last year, first from communications specialist to senior project manager and then to chief of staff. She is currently serving as interim cultural development officer and was recently appointed to Worcester State University’s Board of Trustees.

’04

Class Agents: David D. Cairns, Michael P. McCarthy

Latasha F. Hughes was awarded one of 66 grants and fellowships from the City of Worcester and the Worcester Arts Council. Winners reflected a wide range of Worcesterbased programs and organizations. Latasha received a $5,000 grant for Mr. Twister, an interactive opera performance and puppetry workshop.

’06

Tara B. (Gliesman) Gunduz coaches the girls varsity soccer team at Dover-Sherborn High School with her husband. This year the team went to the final four in the state tournament. Tara and her husband welcomed their baby girl in July. She took a year off from teaching to be with her daughter, and now she has started a full-time position for her husband’s company, Enjoy Life Education, an educational nonprofit with a fierce drive to positively impact the world through teen empowerment: www.enjoylifeeducation.org.

Musician and producer Eric P. L’Esperance was one of eight Worcester artists recently awarded a $5,000 fellowship through the Worcester Arts Council. Eric is half of the singer/songwriter duo Ash & Eric.

’07

Class Agent: Brittany N. Rheault

Ann E. Klump is looking forward to traveling with her family to England and Norway.

’08

Class Agent: Brandon Huggon

Ivonne-Marie Mendoza received her master’s in business administration with a concentration in project management from Southern New Hampshire University in 2022. She was named to ALPFA’s 2022 Latinas Rising Star list.

’13

Class Agents: Mary E. Laycox, Jose C. Lewis, Joseph D. Nawn, Colleen M. (McKenna) Sansoucy, Trevor J. Sansoucy

Shawn C. Driscoll is a historian, writer, graduate student, and adjunct professor in history and political science. He is the author of the 2022 book We Are but Your Children: An Oral History of the Nightclub ManRay (Quidnet Press) and co-author of The Grip: The 1918 Pandemic and a City Under Siege (Dutcher and Ellsworth) and has published work in books that cover topics ranging from World War I (They Ventured Far, Dutcher and Ellsworth) to women in Hollywood (Hollywood Heroines, ABC-CLIO). A native of the Massachusetts South Shore, Shawn currently lives in Worcester and is pursuing his PhD in global studies at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell.

Elyce Roy was named by Worcester Magazine as one of Worcester’s 2023 Women to Watch, which highlighted 20 local women who have taken on new roles in Worcester, despite continued bias and barriers faced by female leaders across the nation. Elyce graduated from the Worcester Fire Academy last June and is currently a firefighter for the Worcester Fire Department. She has also been owner of CenterMass Training Compound, home of Crossfit Centermass, on Shrewsbury Street for five years. ’15

Class Agent: Brittany King

Derek E. Canton was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and was recently featured in Boston Globe Magazine

Michelle R. Henault is currently a PhD candidate in history at The State University of New York at Albany. She is working on her dissertation, which focuses on cultural and medical understandings of the reproductive body in 18th-century England.

Sean L. Martin went to work in child protective services after graduating from Worcester State then on to grad school for his MSW. He graduated from Westfield State in 2020 and was later able to get his LCSW. Currently, Sean works on a court forensic unit.

Maria R. (Evangelista) Troka traveled to Greece after graduating from Worcester State. There, she met her now husband. Maria got married in 2017 and has an almost two-year-old girl, Eva. Maria worked as a training and development coordinator at DestinationWeddings.com. In 2019, she decided to join the family business and get her real estate sales license.

’16

Bret E. Laurie is a full-time editor and freelancer living in Massachusetts. In 2015, while earning his BA in English with a writing concentration from Worcester State, he began an internship at the art education publisher Davis Publications and in 2016 was hired full time. Since then, he has worked as an editorial assistant, a production editor for several textbooks, and an associate editor for an art education magazine. Bret explores his passion for the horror genre through film reviews and freelance editing projects, including six horror fiction novels for an independent author living in Scotland. Recently, Bret had flash fiction and a short story published in two anthologies from DarkLit Press, a Canada-based small press publishing company. From 2015 to 2016, he worked as the copy chief for the New Worcester Spy. In 2015, he worked in the Worcester State Writing Center as a writing consultant.

’17

Hannah M. (Boss) Maheno, MS, has taken on leadership opportunities in the biotech industry. As a scientist, she developed and qualified a potency assay for a gene therapy product. Hannah presented externally at the CASSS bioassay conference while at Sanofi. In 2021, she accepted a manager role at Homology Medicines, leading a team of five analysts responsible for release testing of clinical AAV material. They introduced automated pipetting systems into their lab and used ddPCR to quantify their vector genomes. She is currently responsible for a lab expansion project as they increase their capacity in 2023. Hannah also has a passion for CMC project management and has been collaborating with cross-functional teams to map out the development timelines of tech transfers, IND filing, and beyond.

Alison N. Njoroge started a new position as a medical case manager at Palmetto Community Care.

Isaac D. Ofori is currently a student at UMass Medical School.

Sarah (Connell) Sanders, MEd ’17, is the co-author of Small Teaching K-8, recently published by Jossey-Bass, which addresses teacher burnout with a series of low-effort/ high-reward approaches to education. Via clear descriptions and step-by-step methods, Sanders demonstrates how to integrate simple interventions into pre-existing pedagogical techniques to dramatically improve student outcomes.

’18

Jonathan T. Canoy graduated from Worcester State with a bachelor’s degree in history and went on to obtain a master’s degree in education at UMass Amherst. He had the privilege of teaching in a few different settings, including the Springfield Public Schools and a collaborative in Marlborough. Currently, he teaches eighth grade civics in Westborough, and he’s passionate about making a positive impact on his students’ lives. Outside of teaching, he is eagerly preparing to become a first-time father.

Sydney R. Despres and Hunter Paupaw ’19 got married in December of 2022. They are both proud Lancers and former student-athletes.

Michelle E. Fidler recently graduated from the University of Maine with a master’s degree in speech language pathology and completed her certificate of clinical competence. She is currently working in a middle school in Providence, RI.

’19

Fernando A. Ponce is a Salvadoran American freelance filmmaker who has been creating community-focused short documentaries for three years, Fernando’s passion for filmmaking came from having been filmed on VHS by his dad growing up. Home videos truly preserved and captured his childhood, and he wanted in some way to do the same thing for others through filmmaking. Having a deep appreciation for preserving nostalgia, Fernando’s storytelling is told through creating visuals and portraying raw emotions.