Winter 2022 Alumnotes

1970s

Thomas P. Weber ’79 A.S. was appointed CEO of Hobe Sound Early Learning Center. He is a longtime member of nonprofit boards, especially those benefitting children and families, and has chaired the Education Foundation and Children Services Council of Palm Beach County.

1980s

Don Barthelmess ’80 A.S., a Santa Barbara City College professor of marine technology, joined the board of directors of Stop Oil Seeps California.

Camille Iurillo ’80, president of Iurillo Law Group, merged her practice with Englander Fischer, expanding the firm’s practice areas.

Heriberto Rodriguez ’80 recently retired after a finance career working in various industries.

Doug Huggett ’83 was hired to provide services for the County Shore Protection Office of the Beach Commission, Carteret County, North Carolina.

Eric Zillmer ’83 M.S., ’84 Psy.D., stepped down after 23 years as the Drexel University athletics director. Zillmer will take a one-year sabbatical and return to the faculty in fall 2022 as the Carl R. Pacifico Professor of Neuropsychology.

Matthew Mead ’85 recently became vice president and national senior aviation planning director of Los Angeles-based WSP USA.

John Bittenbinder ’86, Brian Sargent ’88 and Darren Patterson ’93 recently worked together on a United Airlines flight from Lisbon, Portugal, to Newark, New Jersey.

Kevin DiLallo ’86 MBA was promoted to group vice president of the Florida region with UHS Delaware, overseeing four medical facilities and the associated ambulatory care access points.

Col. Jon Fristoe ’87 was elected the 62nd president of the Fiesta San Antonio Commission, a nonprofit organization that plans, promotes and coordinates an annual celebration of the diverse heritage, culture and spirit of San Antonio for its residents and visitors.

Rhonda D. Sammon ’87 MBA retired after nearly 39 years with L3Harris Technologies Inc. In her final role, she served as small business liaison officer in the space and airborne systems segment, supply chain Center of Excellence.

Fahri Diner ’89 was featured in Forbes for his breakthrough company, Plume, which is redefining the smart home category and improving the internet connection experience for service providers and their subscribers.

1990s

Susan Hutchison-Johnston ’90 M.S. recently retired from NASA after a 37-year career at Kennedy Space Center and Johnson Space Center. Her career highlight involved working on the console communicating with astronauts during the STS-99 mission. She ended her career with responsibilities for assets on the International Space Station.

Thomas W. Dussault ’91 MBA is in the senior executive service at the U.S. Department of Energy, and he serves as the department’s deputy senior procurement executive. He recently reached the milestone of 35 years of service in the federal government.

Saeed Al Hamli ’91 has been appointed an independent director to the board of directors of Yalla, a voice-centric social networking and entertainment platform in the Middle East and North Africa. He previously was the CEO of Etisalat Egypt.

Amaury De Barros Conti ’92 was named partner and vice president of investments with Sendero Wealth Management. Conti credits his training as a pilot for incorporating a clean, mental checklist to sort through all the market noise in investing.

Joel Stephens ’93 was named president of the life insurance division of Thomas Financial.

Derek A. Dyson ’94 MBA was named president and CEO of Today’s Power Inc.

Munir Hafez ’95, ’97 M.S., was recentlyappointed senior vice president and chief information officer for TransUnion.

Col. James L. Booth ’97 became the 61st commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District during a change of command ceremony at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts’ Terry Theater in Jacksonville, Florida.

2000s

Mridula Srinivasan ’01 M.S., Ph.D., became director of the marine mammal and turtle division of the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center. She holds a joint appointment as a visiting research scientist at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Capt. Rob Jefferis ’03 A.S., ’05, and his wife, Melissa Jefferis, MD, are pleased to announce the birth of their twins, Liam and Amelia. Big brother Alex couldn’t be prouder.

Sanchez Brooks ’04 was recently promoted to assistant managing director of NUA Insurance Agents & Brokers Ltd. in Nassau, Bahamas.

Jessica Graham ’04, ’11 Ph.D., was named Florida State University Panama City’s new estuary program director for St. Andrew and St. Joseph bays.

Stacey Reed ’07 welcomed her daughter, Elei Francesca, July 16. She arrived as a special angel after Stacey underwent a new treatment to beat uterine cancer.

Sandra Brogl ’08 Ph.D. began working for the European Space Agency as a deployment engineer for the ground segment in the control center in Germany. Previously, she worked with the International Space Station as a payload engineer for the Columbus module and later with the European navigation program, Galileo.

Amber Clark ’09 was appointed to the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame by Gov. Brian Kemp. Clark serves as airport director for Columbus Airport Commission (CSG).

2010s

Dean Faithfull ’11, who played soccer for four years at Florida Tech, is kicking in his second athletic career and is believed to be the oldest college football player in the U.S.

Cedric Flowers ’11 MBA was recently promoted to vice president of DTE Gas at DTE Energy.

Lynisha Nelson ’11 was recently inducted into the Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame. She holds the rank of sergeant in the Army National Guard.

Stephanie Zoutenbier ’11, a commercial engagement leader with Baker Hughes, Texas, has been named one of Hart Energy Oil and Gas Investor’s Forty under 40.

Adner Marcelin ’12 MBA, J.D., is the new Tallahassee executive for Self-Help Credit Union.

Tina Tucker ’12 M.S.was recently appointed chief operating officer of Pinnacle Solutions Inc. in Huntsville, Alabama.

Rodney Turner ’12 M.S. recently became a vice president with GovernmentCIO.

Joao Alberto de Faria ’13, ’15 M.S., recently accepted a new role as a specialist software engineer at Amgen, working on pharmaceutical process development.

Rodney Brown ’13 M.S. was promoted to principal architect with AT&T Integrated Solutions & Consulting.

Kyle Heberle ’13 recently returned to his home state, Missouri, to take a new role as CEO of TNT Crust.

Benjamin Pittman ’13 and Katrina Pittman recently welcomed future Panther Samuel Thomas Pittman.

Kathryn Pocchiare ’13 MBA was recently promoted to IT manager with Health First.

Robert Himler ’14, ’15 MSA, manager of marketing & communications at Melbourne Orlando International Airport, was recently honored as Communicator of the Year by the Space Coast chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association.

Stephen Wade ’14 MBA has been hired as the City of Topeka‘s director of financial and administrative services. Wade has been serving as the acting director for the past year and oversaw the 2022 budget process.

Stefanie Jansson ’15 M.S. and Daniel Kolodny ’02, ’15 M.S., welcomed Ezra Jansson Kolodny July 18.

Summer Rebensky ’15, ’17 M.S., ’20 Ph.D., following her post-doctoral fellowship with the Consortium Research Fellows Program with the Air Force Research Laboratory, is now a research scientist with Aptima, focusing on performance assessment technologies.

Peter Zappala ’15, ’19 M.S., and Jamison Burch ’19 competed as “Florida Tech Boyz” in the two-person relay in the World’s Toughest Mudder event. Each completed 10 five-mile, nonstop laps over a mud obstacle course in 24 hours, earning a fourth-place finish.

Sihara Mateo ’16 M.S. became co-CEO of Jos Associates, an IT solutions business in the Dominican Republic.

Nathaniel Gale ’17, ’21 MBA, became the assistant director for communications and digital strategy with the Missouri Valley Conference of St. Louis. He was recently accepted into the Minority Opportunity Athletic Association Rising Star mentorship program.

Daniel Rassoul ’17, ’19 MBA, joined Nike as a consumer planner in the global promo apparel group.

Samantha Allard ’18 was married in November 2021. She and her husband met at Florida Tech!

Joseph Burby ’18 M.S., after 24 years of service with the U.S. Air Force, recently transitioned to Liberty Mutual Insurance as a scrum master working with telephone technology projects.

Sidney Legarreta ’18 was recently promoted to airfield duty manager at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in Texas.

Amal Binsalman ’19 M.S. now heads the scientific research department of Al-Rayan Colleges in Saudi Arabia.

Melissa Judge ’19 landed a new role as data manager with Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.

Diondra Whindleton ’19 M.S. joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond as a senior cybersecurity analyst on the national incident response team.

2020s

Hiba Ghrair ’20 M.A. is the lead therapist with Mohammed bin Rashid Center for Special Education, operated by the New England Center for Children in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

De’Shanna Hayden ’20 M.S. joined Dell Technologies as an IT project manager after more than six years with Boeing Co.

Daniel Imhansiemhonehi ’20 M.S. joined Publix as a senior cloud security engineer.

Eyad Khawajah ’20 joined Abbott Diagnostics as a technical services specialist.

Thomas Murphy ’20 was promoted to analyst, aircraft records with Spirit Airlines after completing his degree.

Per Henrik Holm Nag ’20 joined SpareBank 1 Markets in Oslo, Norway, in high-yield credit sales.

Cassondra Petersen ’20, ’21 M.S., began work as a research and development test engineer with the Medtronic Foundation. Her involvement with cardiovascular medical device research, pharmaceutical research and internships in R&D, quality and human factors engineering helped sharpen her professional focus.

Kayla Simmons ’20 M.S. advanced her career in supply chain management with a new role as purchasing agent for SiteOne Landscape Supply.

Johnathan Watts ’20, an aerospace propulsion system engineer with NASA at Marshall Space Flight Center, supports operations for Artemis and future missions to the moon and Mars, working in the in-space manufacturing division.

Kara Watts ’20 went on to the University of St. Andrews in Scotland after completing her B.S. in animal behavior to study foraging behaviors of grey and harbor seals in the North Sea. Back in the U.S., Watts landed her dream job as an aquatic research associate at The Seas with Nemo and Friends in Walt Disney World’s Epcot.

Matthew Backert ’21 recently joined 5-D Systems Inc., a KRATOS company, as a systems engineer in Austin, Texas, developing the XQ-58A Valkyrie UAV.

Zachary Behlok ’21 A.A., ’21 A.S.,a behavioral therapist at The Sonder Autism Center, recently published his second book, Penalties of a Judgmental Mind, which provides a new perspective on ethics, behavior and societal bias to heighten equality and societal morale.

Chanelle Lochan ’21 began work as a clinical research associate with the Cure 4 The Kids Foundation for children’s cancer, hematology and rare genetic diseases in Las Vegas. Her role impacts new forms of patient treatment, revolutionary drugs, medical devices and more.

Zachary Seymour ’21 accepted a full-time position with Blue Origin as a manufacturing engineer.