Alumni Accomplishments

The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) recently awarded Dr. Doreen M. Tobin ’74, center, interim vice president for student ­affairs at East Strouds­burg University, its most prestigious honor, the Ted K. Miller Achievement of Excellence Award. The award ­recognizes outstanding accomplishments in advancing standards of practice and quality assurance in educational ­programs and ­services in higher education, with the goal of ­enhancing student learning.  Jan Arminio, president of CAS (right), presented the award, joined by the award’s namesake, Ted K. Miller, CAS’s first president. Tobin has led Kutztown University’s 10-year review twice and coordinated the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s ­review of its alcohol and other drug education programs at its 14 institutions.

Class Reporter Joel Collamer ’78, of Old Greenwich, Conn., has accepted a position with Tata Consultancy Services’ global insurance practice.  He is based in New York City as a managing consultant with leadership responsibilities for selling the full spectrum of Tata’s offerings and for managing the ­delivery of those services to insurance companies.

 

Meredith Potter ’04, public affairs coordinator and executive director of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority and the New Jersey Hall of Fame, has been appointed to the board of the International Sports Heritage Association (ISHA). The ISHA’s membership includes 120 sports heritage ­organizations from five continents, “dedicated to helping member institutions better preserve history and educate future generations on the importance of sport as history,” according to its Web site.

Dix & Eaton, Cleveland, Ohio, has announced that Robert G. Berick ’89, a managing director of the firm, has been named to head its investor relations practice.  Berick, who began his career in the New York office of Hill & Knowlton, Inc., is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI). He serves on the board of the ­Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio and the marketing committee of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Cleveland.

George R. Moore ’70, of Andover, Mass., has been elected to a one-year term as president of the New England Bar Association. Moore is a shareholder in the law firm of Devine Millimet; his practice focuses on commercial litigation cases, and he has trial experience encompassing business and securities litigation, business governance disputes and professional liability matters such as intellectual property rights and real estate and tax disputes. He is admitted to practice in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

University of Florida Professor of Geology Michael Perfit ’71 was on campus to deliver the Susan Caroline Fer­guson Memorial Lecture in Geology on March 1. He spoke on new geological and biological discoveries in deep-submarine exploration of the East Pacific Rise.

 

Michael Burgess ’75 (right)has been named commissioner of the New York State Office for the Aging under the new administration of Governor Eliot Spitzer (left). The government major and Thelmo member had served as the executive director of the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans since 2004; prior to that, he was executive director of the New York Statewide Senior Action Council.

 

Marilyn Holstein ’80 has been honored by the Junior League of the City of New York, Inc., (NYJL) as one of their 2006 Outstanding Volunteers of the Year. Holstein has volunteered with the NYJL since 1997 and served on a variety of committees supporting NYJL’s charitable activities, including the Community Health Access Model Program, the Girls Leadership Institute and the NYJL Mother’s Day Race to Erase Domestic Violence. When not volunteering with the NYJL, she is managing editor of Newsweek Budget Travel.

David J. Miller ’81 has been appointed deputy commissioner for innovation and chief of staff of the New York State Education Department. Miller is in a new post that, according to a press release, “is responsible for carrying out fundamental systems change where needed to ensure (that) the department’s capacity is allocated effectively to achieve its mission.” Miller had been the long-time executive director of Audubon New York. He has been active as an alumnus, in career advising and as a Reunion planner, and is the recipient of a 2007 Alumni Citation.

Andrew Ewing ’79 has been awarded a Marie Curie chair to become pro­fessor of analytical chemistry at Gothenburg University, Sweden. The chair is a three-year award, with the possibility of extension into a permanent position.

Kevin Raphael ’91, a shareholder at the Philadelphia firm of Miller, Alfano & Raspanti PC, was named a Super Lawyers Rising Star for 2006. He was selected for his work in white-collar criminal defense, including civil and criminal health care fraud, commercial disputes, professional licensing litigation and liquor licensing litigation. After graduating from St. Law­rence, he received his J.D. from SUNY Buffalo School of Law.

 

The American Lawyer has designated Sean Murphy ’91, a partner at the international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, as a Fab Fifty Young Litigator, an elite group of litigators whom the The American Lawyer recognizes as the top 50 litigators in the United States under age 45. A securities litigator in the New York office of Milbank, he represents major mutual fund and financial service companies in complex securities matters. He was also recognized as a leading securities litigator by Chambers USA and was recently selected as one of Lawdragon’s “500 New Stars.”

Donna Winston '85 and Gregory Ferrero '84 have both earned promotions at Goldman Sachs. Winston is the global head of equities and FICC human capital management. She was named a managing director in 2006. Ferrero manages the firm’s Florida and Latin American private wealth management businesses. He also became a managing director in 2006; he earned his MBA at Harvard Business School.

Dr. Thomas Okey, a senior quantitative marine ecologist at the Department of Marine and Atmospheric Research at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Queensland, Australia, has been named a 2007 Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation. He will receive $150,000 to conduct a three-year conservation project designed to address critical challenges to healthy oceans, by performing a gap analysis of research on marine and coastal climate impacts and adaptation programs. The goal of the analysis is to aid in the development of more comprehensive and complementary science programs and innovative ideas for climate change impact assessment, management and communication.