Winter 2023 AlumNotes

Florida Tech February 14, 2023

1980s

Michael Donovan ’84 was promoted in January 2022 to the Senior Executive Service for a new position in the Pentagon with the Joint Intelligence Directorate of the National Guard Bureau after spending over 18 years with the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Keith Harris ’88 M.S. started a new position as maintenance manager at International Service Solutions (ISS) supporting the Takeda Pharmaceuticals Thousand Oaks, California, manufacturing site.

2000s

David Magidson ’03 M.S., ’04 MBA, was promoted to chief systems engineer of the Joint Program Executive Office Armaments and Ammunition team (JPEO A&A) with the United States Army.

Mishaal Ashemimry ’06, ’07 M.S., has become the first Saudi woman to hold the position of vice president of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF).

Mitch Ehmka ’07 was promoted to chief trading officer at Kingsview Partners, where he oversees all trading operations within the Chicago firm and runs the day-to-day operations.

David Morón ’07 M.S. joined Blizzard Entertainment in July 2022 as a game producer on the World of Warcraft team.

Daniela Iacobelli ’09 claimed victory at the Wildhorse Ladies Golf Classic, her fourth Epson Tour win.

Apryl Alexander ’09 M.S., ’12 Psy.D., was named the Metrolina Medical Foundation Distinguished Scholar in Health and Public Policy in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

2010s

Shawn M. Bennett ’10, ’18 M.S., and his wife welcomed a new Panther cub, Ella, in May 2022.

Jonathan Hanna ’10, ’12 M.S., was appointed vice president of operations for the Nassau Airport Development Co. (NAD). At age 34, he is the youngest person appointed to NAD’s executive management team. He and his wife, Tia-Toni Williams, recently welcomed a new Panther cub, Marleigh Gwen Hanna, to the family.

William Harwood ’10 recently became software development manager at Foster + Freeman, a forensic science company based in Evesham, England, helping to fight crime from the field to the courtroom across the world.

Bryan Hudson ’10 MBA started work at a nonprofit association that services Virginia’s hospital and health care system members with cost-effective resources, which keeps them in operation and may offer lower costs to the patients.

Jake Koch ’10 accepted a new position with FinancialForce after 12 years with PTC Inc., where he took on a variety of roles, such as software implementation consultant, instructor, IoT architect, consultant manager, customer success analyst and director of customer success.

Ashutosh Das ’11 M.S. was promoted to manager II with Anthem Inc. (now Elevance Health) and has been with the company for over nine years.

Kim Fatica ’11 MBA passed his certification exam to become a Certified Broadcast Television Engineer (CBTE) through the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

Erik Mackay ’11 and his wife recently welcomed a new Panther cub, Audrey Kaweesi Mackay, into the world.

Katreena Mullican ’11 M.S. was promoted to principal solutions architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and celebrated her third anniversary at AWS.

Marie Zahn ’11 was chosen as a 2022 Cape & Plymouth Business Media 40 Under 40 honoree, an award that spotlights top young business leaders who excel in their industry and show dynamic leadership.

Luis Maristany ’12 started a new position as senior coastal engineer with Stantec, working on coastal restoration and protection projects. He also welcomed his firstborn son, Adrián Luis Maristany, in October 2021.

Tina Tucker ’12 M.S. was recently appointed president and CEO of Pinnacle Solutions Inc.

Tia Haslett ’14 M.S. started a new position as senior acquisition consultant at DC Capital Group.

Marc Salvadori ’14 became a member of the technical staff with HyPerComp Inc.

Nicholas Schwartz ’14 M.S., Ph.D., P.E., joined Obantarla as the principal scale-up engineer, working on a modular, transportable natural gas-to-methanol process to address flaring and climate change.

Missy Drury ’15 joined Nike as change management and engagement lead for the data and analytics team.

Sean Kohn ’16 recently started a new position as a senior field engineer at The Lane Construction Corp., working on large highway infrastructure projects.

Chaitya Birenbhai Shah ’16 M.S. joined FracTEL LLC as a software engineer in 2017 and recently got promoted to communication platform as a service (CPaaS) product manager. FracTEL provides telecommunication services to carriers, service providers and businesses, including Florida Tech.

Akhil Sundar ’16 M.S. recently joined the team at VillageMD, which focuses on providing better value-based health care after the pandemic.

Obinna O. Uyanna ’16 M.S., ’21 Ph.D., was selected as senior hardware engineer with Dell Technologies.

Alexander Davila ’17 M.S. joined Schellman & Co. as a penetration tester with a specialty in web application security testing. He previously worked at Gleim Publications Inc. for over 10 years, moving up the ranks before leaving as the digital marketing manager.

Matthew Mercado ’17 started a new role as industrial controls engineering consultant in the Baltimore area.

Aasritha Obbilisetty ’17 M.S. started a new position as business data analyst with Intuit.

Samantha Paitsel ’17 and Coleman Olson ’19 were married in New Orleans in October 2022. Over two dozen College Players alumni attended their wedding.

Ross Gartman ’18, ’22 M.S., was promoted at AAR Corp. and now serves as senior logistics analyst for the Worldwide Aviation Support System program.

Brandon Currie ’19 M.S. started a new position as manager of training and development at Brevard Health Alliance Inc.

Keith Harris ’19 M.A. started a new position as chief people officer with Operation HOPE. Before Operation HOPE, Harris spent over two years with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay.

Capt. Darian Sotomi ’19 was promoted to captain in the ERJ 170 at Republic Airways. He credits his influential flight instructors at FIT Aviation for preparing him for this next step.

Leanni Tibbetts ’19 is the fourth woman to become a pilot with Cayman Airways, having completed the local airline’s recruitment and training program.

2020s

Savannah Brennan ’21, ’22 M.S., was named a top 30 honoree for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Brennan, a First Team All-American swimmer, is the first Florida Tech scholar-athlete to be honored as a top 30 selection.

Victoria Newman ’21 M.S. was selected as part of the inaugural cohort of the U.S. Digital Corps. There, she will spend the next two years working at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), supporting government entities with technical expertise and assistance in implementing the president’s cybersecurity executive order.

Jocelyn Pitts ’21 M.S. was promoted to advanced support technician with KnowBe4.

Ashlea Daniels ’22 moved to Huntersville, North Carolina, after graduation and accepted a position with Covia Corp. as a process engineer.

2nd Lt. Regina Gaglione ’22 was commissioned second lieutenant in the United States Army with the Florida Tech ROTC Panther Battalion.