Fall 2022 AlumNotes

Florida Tech October 21, 2022

1970s

Allan Schreiber ’75, ’84 M.S., Sherri Graulich Nickell ’83, Sherry Martz Carberry ’84, Paul Osley ’84 and Lori Kotzer Jennis ’88, Ursula Belen McCain ’88 M.S. met up at the Florida American Industrial Hygiene Association Fall Conference 2021 in Treasure Island, Florida. Some lifelong friends, some acquaintances and one newcomer, the group enjoyed catching up and reminiscing on the “good ole days” at Florida Tech.

1980s

Jonathan Zung ’86, Ph.D., joined the Vial Scientific Advisory Board to support the Vial Dermatology contract research organization and its sponsors to further advance the field of dermatology clinical research and bring new therapies to the market.

Joseph Walden ’88 MBA, ’89 M.S., won the 2022 United States Powerlifting Association Drug Tested National Championships in Atlanta and set 13 national records and 11 world records.

1990s

Lt. Col. James Reeman ’92 recently partnered with his children to start their own business, Mile High Path 2 Pilot, empowering people to elevate into aviation opportunities. As a former military air and space commander, Reeman continues to advise forces in Eastern Europe and has recently entered his 25th year with Delta Air Lines, where he is a New York-based line check airman on the Boeing 757-767 fleet.

David Flaw ’93 has become the director of manufacturing engineering for Monarch Tractor, which manufactures a fully autonomous electric tractor.

Milo Zonka ’95 joined the board of the Tony Jannus Distinguished Aviation Society, which recognizes outstanding contributors to the growth and improvement of the commercial airline industry. He was honored to be “pinned” by fellow College of Aeronautics graduate and president of the Florida Tech Alumni Association, Fin Bonset ’96, ’99 MSA.

2000s

Gil Ramirez ’00 has become the CEO of Lassiter Transportation Group Inc., a 28-person firm with offices in Jacksonville, Ormond Beach and Melbourne, Florida. The ownership transition occurred as LTG celebrates its 20th anniversary.

Premkumar Thangamani ’02 M.S. recently took on a new role as technical evangelist at YugabyteDB, a Distributed Cloud SQL Database company. He credits the knowledge and exposure he gained from the faculty at Florida Tech for the success in his career thus far.

Rob Brodner Jr. ’03 joined Teradyne as a field application engineer, helping semiconductor manufacturers test their microchips before shipping to customers.

Camille Thorpe ’03, ’09 M.S. recently assumed the role of senior specialist of regulatory affairs at Abbott Medical Canada.

Melissa Tribou ’03, ’06 M.S., ’16 Ph.D., recently took on the role of research professional at Florida Tech’s Center for Corrosion and Biofouling Control, where she examines the impacts of underwater cleaning on coatings and substrate materials.

Nate Howells ’04 M.S. returned to Boeing Co. as a payloads engineer in the 737 floor coverings group. He has been a payloads engineer in various capacities since 2013 after he was hired in 2008 as a fluids and propulsion design engineer with the space shuttle main propulsion system.

Jason Sperry ’04 works for OneWeb satellites and is involved with launching a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites. Much of the manufacturing of these satellites is in Brevard County, Florida, and will be launching with SpaceX in late 2022 and early 2023.

Stephanie Herndon ’07 joined subsea technology company Arctic Rays in Satellite Beach, Florida, as director of marketing and communication. She also was recently installed as 2022–2023 governor-elect for the American Advertising Federation District 4, representing Florida and the Caribbean.

Elise Sachs Henry ’08 recently had her third Panther Cub.

Pooja Patil ’08 M.S. recently started working for the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine in Toronto as a sterility assurance manager and enjoys each day at work.

Apryl Alexander ’09 M.S., ’12 Psy.D., received the 2022 Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI).

Andrew Michalets ’09 M.S. started working as a solutions architect for BeyondID, an identity and access management service provider.

Mary Rajnicek ’09 started a new role as HSE coordinator at UTAC.

2010s

Trevor Crawford ’10 M.S. began work as a senior machine learning engineer at RS21, developing tools and processes that handle model training and serving predictions to end users. Previously, he worked as a computational scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and ERT Inc.

Hamidreza Ouni ’10 M.S. recently started working as a senior software engineer for Cox Automotive Inc.

Mat Jordan ‘11 recently joined the team at Arctic Rays, a subsea technology manufacturer, as senior electrical engineer.

Brandon Bourne ’13 and Yasmine Bourne ’13 welcomed a new Panther cub, Mina, to the world after meeting at Florida Tech in 2010 and getting married in 2017. With Brandon’s father, Dennis Bourne ’81, they represent three generations of Panthers!

Brandon Crane ’14 recently began working for AmeriCU Credit Union as a project manager, is pursuing a doctorate in business administration and is an inventor with a provisional patent for Bag Swag.

Ray Maggi ’14 is now a development project manager for WeWork, focusing on delivering, designing and building new locations and custom solutions in commercial real estate.

Rayan Mously ’14 M.S. took on the role of manager of information protection for a top-tier bank in the Middle East. He thanks Florida Tech faculty and staff for providing tremendous support during his time studying on campus.

Hannah Becker ’15 MBA was selected to join the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association cyber committee, supporting government and industry information technology initiatives.

Andrea Brooks ’15 started a new position as process engineer with a large company called Wood in the UK.

Delphia “Daisy” Lackey ’15 M.S. was promoted to senior manager at Altria for it Quality, Safety, Health and Environmental account.

Nick Sinclair ’15 was promoted to supply chain quality manager at Lamex Foods Inc., where he has worked since his graduation from Florida Tech.

Thilip Ravindran ’16, ’20 M.S., is working as an investigator/auditor for Porter Airlines Inc.

Aasritha Obbilisetty ’17 M.S. has started a new position as project manager for Intuit.

Alexis Nimons ’18 M.S. recently moved back to her home state, Alabama, to take on the role of human capital coordinator for Crossflow Technologies. Last year, she and her husband welcomed to their home a new puppy, who just turned a year old.

Gregory Thomas II ’18 MBA, recently joined software giant Oracle as one of the youngest directors employed by the company. With 15 years of marketing and communications experience, he will help shape the future of how the company sells its products and forms relationships with customers.

Shawn Brown ’19 is working as data management subject matter expert for Kearney & Co. Kearney & Co. is one of Accounting Today’s top 100 accounting firms and regional leaders.

2020s

Giulio Cristello ’20, ’22 M.S., joined the Wabtec Corp. team in Melbourne, Florida, working in TO Validation. Originally from Rome, Giulio received both his undergraduate degree (aerospace engineering) and his graduate degree (systems engineering) from Florida Tech.

Josiah Ruelas ’20 was hired at NASA as a launch site integration engineer.

Andy Schubert ’20 M.S. recently accepted a senior structural design engineering lead position at Boeing Co. in St. Louis.

Zachary Behlok ’21 A.S., ’22 A.A. established an online academic journal titled Modern Rebellion, which publishes monthly. Although Modern Rebellion specializes in philosophy and psychology, it publishes contributions from varying writers, researchers and subject matter experts in fields ranging from psychology, poetry, philosophy, linguistics, photography, engineering and more.

Andrea Polanco ’21 M.S. received a promotion at Citi and now serves as the ICRM capacity planning solutions engineer.

Capt. Gordon Herrero ’22 M.S. was highlighted during the 2022 Department of Defense pride event at the Pentagon when deputy defense secretary Kathleen Hicks mentioned him as an example of transgender service members who are making positive contributions to the armed forces.

Laura Jerrolds ’22 released her first book—a middle-grade fiction book titled Help…! It’s 1928!—one week after graduating from Florida Tech.

Sam Sidari ’22 was hired on as a software engineer at General Electric Co., working on the “Eterra Distribution” product that network operators use to manage outages and recalibrate electricity.