Class Notes
a strategic partnership involving the city of Youngstown and the Raymond John Wean Foundation that will focus on strategic neighborhood revitalization in the city. An 18-year veteran of the banking industry, Gillespie was formerly a vice president and community development lender for KeyBank who generated more than $60 million in community development transactions for the greater Youngstown area. Laura MacGregor Comek of Columbus, Ohio, ’94 BSBA, has been named to the 2009 edition of Ohio Super Lawyers Rising Stars, a publication that recognizes outstanding attorneys under 40 or who have practiced for less than Laura MacGregor Comek 10 years. Laura earned her law degree from Capital University Law School and practices land and economic development, eminent domain and municipal law. She is the youngest partner with the Columbus law firm of Crabbe Brown and James LLP. Comek is also a 2006 Business First Forty Under 40 Award recipient. Her husband Jeff Vanik, ’94 BSFA, is also a YSU alumnus. Matthew Hiner of Kirtland, Ohio, ’94 MA in history, is an assistant history professor at Lakeland Community College and was recently awarded tenure by its board of trustees. Hiner has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Akron and spent two years teaching at Northampton College in Pennsylvania before joining the Lakeland faculty in 2003. Hiner was also featured on a PBS documentary titled “Generations: Cuyahoga Valley National Park.”
Amid the cheers of an enthusiastic “Price is Right” audience, YSU alumna Sarah Wakefield of Boardman nearly missed the iconic call: “Sarah Wakefield, come on down!” Wakefield, who earned both bachelor’s (’06) and master's (’07) degrees in economics from YSU, was vacationing in Las Vegas in June when she and her traveling companions decided to try out for the long-running television game show. She was the first audience member called to participate in Contestants Row that day and got to show off her “Ohio Loves Drew” T-shirt on stage with host Drew Carey. Wakefield won a set of golf clubs on the show, which was broadcast Sept. 30 on Youngstown CBS affiliate, WKBN-TV Channel 27. Wakefield is employed as an instructor in the Department of Economics at YSU and as an economic assistant with the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Division in Youngstown. She also teaches online courses for DeVry University
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Jennifer Pimpinella of Hubbard, ’00 Associate in accounting, has been named manager of payroll processing and reporting for Humility of Mary Health Partners, Youngstown, and Jennifer Pimpinella Community Mercy Health Partners, Springfield, Ohio. She is a former HMHP payroll administrator. Amanda SmithTeutsch of Girard, ’02 AB in French and journalism, is a reporter for Akron-based Waste & Recycling News, a division of Crain Communications. Formerly, she was a reporter for the Tribune Chronicle Amanda Smith-Teutsch newspaper in Warren. Her husband, Eric Teutsch, ’00 BSE in Spanish and education, ’05 MEd, is also a YSU alumnus. Tara Treharn Keating of Howland, Ohio, ’02 BA in political science and economics, was elected in November to a four-year term on the Howland Board of Education. Treharn Keating earned a law degree from the University of Akron School of Law in 2005, served as a magistrate with the Trumbull County Probate
Court in Warren and is now employed as a judicial attorney for Judge Timothy P. Cannon in the Eleventh District Court of Appeals. Gina Zirounis of Mineral Ridge, Ohio, ’04 BA in early childhood education, was named retail sales manager for a Verizon Wireless store in Alliance, retaining the position she held when the store was operated by Alltel. Katie Krichko of Scottsdale, Ariz., ’06 BA in hospitality management, was a contestant in the Miss Arizona pageant in November as part of the Miss USA contest. She qualified for the state pageant by winning the title Miss Valley of the Sun. Krichko is employed as a life enrichment manager at Sunrise Senior Living. Samuel Di Rocco, II of Leetonia, Ohio, ’06 MA in history, recently received the Lloyd and Betty Lapp Outstanding Doctoral History Student Award from the University of Toledo Department of History, where he is a doctoral student and instructor. His manuscript, entitled “One Jewish Community’s Response to Nazism and the Refugee Crisis: The Formation and Fundraising Objectives of the Jewish Federation of Youngstown, Ohio 1935-1941,” was also published by Kent State University Press in Ohio History, volume 116. Karen Elizabeth Varga of Malaga, Spain, ’07 BA in Spanish and international relations, has been awarded a 2009-10 Rotary Foundation Ambassador Scholarship to study abroad at the Universidad Central de Venezuelad in Venezuela. Varga moved to Spain after completing her YSU degree and spent two years as an employee of the Spanish government, teaching English at an elementary school. She will spend two semesters studying in Venezuela. Heather Baltic of Girard, ’07 BSAS in forensic science, recently completed a master of public health degree in epidemiology at Ohio State University, where she was awarded the Outstanding Student Heather Baltic Award upon graduation. She is now employed at Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center as program coordinator of the Behavioral Measurement Shared Resource and serves on the alumni society board of directors for the College of Public Health.
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