Winter 2021 AlumNotes

1970s

Joseph T. Walden ’73 was recently appointed as an associate teaching professor for supply chain management at the University of Kansas. Walden also repeated as National Powerlifting Champion at the 2020 Drug Tested United States Powerlifting Association National Championships in Columbus, Ohio, while setting new world and national records in the deadlift.

1980s

Daniel Levy ’80, ’83 MBA, was recently appointed head of international sales and marketing at Tambour, Israel’s leading company in the paint and construction market.

Anthony Ceglio ’82 A.S., ’84, was hired as the new director for Republic Airport in East Farmingdale, New York.

Jonathan Koshar ’83 MBA recently joined Ziply Fiber as director of support operations.

Edward Triebell ’83 joined Anju Software as a senior director of business development for its eClinical division. Triebell also serves as advisor to Health Cloud Solutions.

Lemuel Aguayo ’83, ’92 M.S., a senior project engineer on the Artemis program, received the Lockheed Martin Hispanic Organization for Leadership and Awareness (HOLA) Luminary Award.

John Dutton ’84 recently joined Novel Engineering as a business development manager at the company’s Melbourne, Florida, headquarters.

David Tomasko ’85 M.S., Ph.D., is the new executive director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program.

Maia McGuire ’89, Ph.D., was named the associate director of extension and education with Florida Sea Grant.

1990s

Dan Williams ’90 MBA, ’95 Ph.D., received the SAE Magnus Hendrickson Innovation Award. Williams is director of ADAS and Autonomous Driving for ZF.

Mathieu Gozard ’93 M.S. takes the helm of the IT solutions company Cimut as CEO.

John Givens ’94 was appointed to VirTra’s board of directors. Givens currently serves as a military board advisor to Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim).

Gary Pacilio ’94 M.S., a veteran of the fire service industry, has joined the REV Fire Group Company as director of operational excellence.

Roger Prokic ’95 M.S., was recently promoted to senior program director for Alcyon Technical Services JV LLC. Prokic served as a civil servant for 10 years on the space shuttle launch team at Kennedy Space Center.

Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins ’95 M.S., U.S. Army retired, has been named interim superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute.

W. Dale Crossley Jr. ’96 MSM was named a member of Raymond James’ 2021 Chairman’s Council for the second consecutive year.

Yvonne Paraway ’98 M.S., Ph.D., has been promoted to assistant vice president of outpatient nursing services at Kennedy Krieger Institute.

2000s

Hamed Al-BuSaidi ’00, Ph.D., was recently named governor of Al-Buraimi in Muscat, Oman.

Col. Katherine Graef ’01 MSM is retiring from the U.S. Army after 30 years of service. In her final military role, she served as logistics director for Special Operations Command Africa. She is also an inaugural member of the Halifax International Security Forum’s Peace with Women Fellowship.

Seth Medford ’02 and Elizabeth Wyman were wed in August 2020 in Keene, NH. The couple’s dog, Baxter Rose, served as flower girl, and Baxter’s canine cousin, Finley Bear, served as ring bearer.

Neil Bhola ’03, Ph.D., was promoted to principal scientist at Ideaya Biosciences.

Michael Schindel ’03 and Eileen Mullowney were married at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont, in September 2020.

Mehdi Hameer ’04 joins Infobip Tanzania as senior sales manager.

Remco Kuyper ’05 has been appointed software development manager at Amazon Web Services, leading a team of software engineers to develop static code analysis tools.

Kenneth Cottle ’07 secured a role with Riot Games as an engineering manager, working on the player platform team.

Erica Wales ’07, Ph.D., recently joined ASRC Federal as a budget analyst for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) satellite program.

2010s

Lt. Col. Randolph Scott Carpenter ’10 M.S., was named the new Holston Army Ammunition Plant commander.

Darren Wilson ’10 was appointed airport manager for F. D. Roosevelt Airport in Sint Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean, locally known as Statia.

Cecilia Dockery ’11 transitioned to a new role as director of student conduct at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.

Jeffrey Eubanks ’11 M.S. was recently appointed as senior director of engineering for Vocera Communications.

Guillermo Naranjo ’11, Ph.D., works as an electronic warfare engineer with Syracuse Research Corporation and lectures physics at University of Texas.

Nathan Staffel ’11 M.S. recently joined Guidehouse as a senior consultant, solving emerging technical challenges in the national security sector. Previously, he served five years in the FBI as a special agent.

Kate Sumrow ’11 M.S. is a director for KPMG Middle East, based out of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A retired U.S. Army captain, she also has competed at the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships and completed three Ironman 70.3 races.

Dominic Alpuche ’12 MBA was hired as the CFO for Options for Learning, an organization that provides tools for positive foundations for school, social and life success.

Srikanth Chetlur ’12 MBA, a professional scrum master and product owner, recently became a software implementation consultant with One Inc.

Ishwarya Thirunarayana ’12 M.S. joined ZAP Surgical Systems as a TPS software engineer.

David Alvarado ’13, ’14 M.S., and Erin Pittman ’16 were married in October 2020.

John Robertson ’13, Ph.D., started a new role as a Dragon development engineer at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, where he is working on space solar array development.

Sai Yellepeddi ’13 M.S. transitioned to a new role as technical advisor in cloud computing with Microsoft. He previously served as a cloud support engineer.

Yichao Yu ’13, Ph.D., joined Boehringer Ingelheim as associate director of project clinical pharmacokineticist. Previously, she was a clinical assistant professor in University of Florida’s biostatistics department.

Olivia Benjamin ’14 MBA has joined the University of Virginia Licensing & Ventures Group as manager of financial operations.

Jamie Landers Foster ’14 MBA was promoted to East Rome branch manager with Greater Community Bank.

Marco Rossi Bazzani ’14 M.S. was named business unit manager for the portfolio group at Fluke Corporation, a Fortive company. In his new role, Bazzani will be managing Amprobe and Pacific Laser Systems tools businesses globally.

Evan Cosgrove ’15, ’20 M.S., ’20 Ph.D., joined MathWorks as an application support engineer.

Anthony Hicks ’15 embarked on a new career as a project engineer with Brax Company in Valley Center, California. Previously, Hicks served three years in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper.

Tabitha Kriegh ’15 recently spoke on behalf of Northrop Grumman’s Innovation Center of Excellence at the New York Maker Faire “Nimble and Creative: Space to Make in the Workplace.” She founded the Space Coast’s FabLab, a community nonprofit focused on STEM education, before joining Northrop Grumman.

Rebecca Granger ’16 MBA, a certified PMP, was promoted to director of strategic programs at Alluvionic Inc., specializing in project management, process improvement (CMMI, CMMC, Lean Six Sigma) and engineering consulting in both the commercial and government sectors.

Bryson Haley ’16 was promoted to supply chain manager at Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), overseeing all procurement proposal activity for the aircraft and space divisions within SNC.

Ahmad Hijazi ’16 serves as climate change specialist with the United Nations Development Programme in Jordan, helping support his country’s government in meeting its commitment to the Paris Agreement.

Andrew Santana ’16 M.S. serves as a logistics management specialist assigned to the AMCOM Logistics Center.

Ariana Tate ’16 has joined Liberty IT Solutions as a Salesforce developer.

Jonathan Wallace ’16, ’18 MBA, became an agency owner with Farmers Insurance Group.

Keith Crisman ’17 M.S., ’20 Ph.D., upon completing his doctorate in human-centered design, joined the faculty at the University of North Dakota as an assistant professor.

Kristin Kopperud ’17 Ph.D. recently became operations project manager for the International Space Station National Laboratoy. Kopperud met her husband, Vincent Trimboli ’16, while they were studying at Florida Tech and were married in December 2019. Trimboli recently joined NASA’s Launch Services Program as an avionics system engineer.

Jeff Gilbert ’17 MBA was recently promoted to senior customer engineer with Microsoft. Gilbert had a 17 ½-year U.S. Army career prior to his 15 years working with Microsoft.

Andres Hernandez ’17 is working for Ørsted, a Denmark-based renewable energy firm, where he will be supporting the development of the largest offshore wind energy park in the United States.

Vinodh Kumar Madhipatla ’17 M.S. has joined the intent-based networking group at CISCO. He is working with DNA Spaces, a product that helps businesses safely open their offices with tracking and social distancing.

Maj. Jairus Roberts ’17 M.S. was selected to serve as the U.S. Army 7th Infantry Division transportation officer (DTO) at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington state, upon completion of the Command and General Staff College in residence at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Jordan Symonds ’17 was recently appointed head of creative for CompEdge Consulting AS.

Capt. Nana Adjei ’18 M.S., active-duty U.S. Army, is serving as Unit Commander of the Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment of the 39th Transportation Battalion in the U.S. European Command territory.

Jim Harrell ’18 started a new position as a software engineer with Northrop Grumman.

Charles Mortensen ’18 joined Amazon as an IT support associate.

Priyadharshan Nadunayagam ’18 was recently promoted to business development manager for the Asia and South Pacific Region with Innegra Technologies.

Katarina Borovina ’19 M.S. joined Hyundai Kia America Technical Center as a vehicle cybersecurity engineer.

Lamont Bryant ’19 M.S. recently landed a position as an operations research analyst with CACI International Inc.

Diksha Chavan ’19 M.S. has joined Steep Hill as a lab analyst.

Louis Falcaro ’19 was recently appointed assistant bookkeeper with Brook Field Services.

Tucker Lebreton ’19 is a manufacturing specialist for Sanofi.

Federica Pala ’19 has joined X-Culture as a global virtual team senior coach.

Lt. Col. Stephen Ward ’19 M.S., as a civil affairs expert, joined the garrison leadership team at Fort Meade, taking on command of Headquarters Command Battalion. His prior assignment was as operations officer for the Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation at the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

2020s

William (Lee) Edwards ’20 M.S. is a software engineer at Amazon. 

Christina Hind ’20 M.S. joined a systems engineering rotational program with Northrop Grumman. 

Karlista Maroney ’20 accepted a marketing director role with Harbor City Capital. 

Christopher Millsap ’20 was appointed CTO for Avancen MOD Corporation after 10 years with the company in new medical technology development. 

Patrick Spangler ’20 is a certified load planner working for Worldwide Flight services.

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This piece was featured in the winter 2021 edition of Florida Tech Magazine.