Alumni Accomplishments

Family Law Attorney Amber L. Barber ’92, a senior associate with the DRM Schoenberg Family Law Group, Burlington, Vt., was elected to the Vermont Bar Association's board of managers at the association's mid-year meeting. The 15-member board provides oversight regarding the policies, positions and actions of the organization; Barber's two-year term begins in conjunction with the VBA's annual meeting in October.

Barber is treasurer of the Chittenden County Bar Association and chair of the Family Law Section of the VBA.  She has served on the VBA board of managers previously, as a member and as past president of the VBA's Young Lawyers Division.  A frequent lecturer on all aspects of family law, including complex litigation, she also serves as a guardian ad litem for family court cases and teaches pro se education classes for the family court. In her practice, Barber handles all aspects of divorce and civil union dissolution.  

Jim Berkman ’82 led his Salisbury University team last spring to the best season in the history of NCAA men's lacrosse (23-0) and its fourth NCAA Division III national championship in five years and seventh in his coaching tenure, in addition to three national runner-up finishes.  The Sea Gulls broke four national records in the process. His 19-season career record at Salisbury is 299-30, including 85-0 in the Capital Athletic Conference. The Sea Gulls have made 18 consecutive trips to the NCAA Championship Tournament, the longest active streak among NCAA Division III programs. Berkman has guided the Sea Gulls to the number one ranking in the USILA poll 11 times and coached 118 All-Americans.  Including one year as the head lacrosse coach at Potsdam State, Berkman's overall career record stands at 308-35.

An All-American midfielder at St. Lawrence, Berkman came to Salisbury after serving as the assistant lacrosse coach and head basketball and JV soccer coach for three seasons at St. Lawrence. He directed his 1987-88 basketball team to the ICAC league championship. He also starred in basketball at St. Lawrence, earning MVP honors in basketball as both a junior and senior. He was inducted into the St. Lawrence Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001.

Scott Furlong ’85, a member of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay faculty since 1993 and chair of the University's Public and Environmental Affairs academic unit, has been named UW-Green Bay's dean of liberal arts and sciences. He began his new duties on July 1.

Furlong has doctoral and master's degrees from The American University in Washington, D.C.; he majored in government at St. Lawrence. His areas of expertise are regulatory policy and interest group participation in the executive branch. He has taught undergraduate courses in American Government and Politics, Introduction to Public Policy, Regulatory Policy, and Administration. Furlong is co-author of  Public Policy: Politics, Analysis, and Alternatives, a textbook for classes on public policy. He has written extensively on civic engagement, the role and influence of special interest groups, and regulatory processes and policy.

Furlong has been co-director of FOCUS (First-Year Opportunities and Connections for UW-Green Bay Students) since 2002. He previously directed the University's Introduction to College program. He serves on the Faculty Senate and is chair of the University Committee, the Senate's executive arm. His wife, Deborah, is director of institutional research at UW-Green Bay; they have two children.

Greg Griffin ’91 has been named associate vice president for development and alumni relations at SUNY Oswego.  He will lead the efforts of the offices of alumni and parent relations, alumni and development communications, and annual giving.  He moves to SUNY Oswego from Syracuse University Library, where he was senior director of library development and external relations. He raised more than $1.1 million for library projects and operating needs, and tripled giving to the library since 2004. Before that, he was director of alumni and parent programs at St. Lawrence and associate director of annual giving at Alfred University, where he received his MBA.  The former chair of Central New York Reads, among his many other volunteer positions, the Liverpool resident enjoys spending time with his family: his wife, Casey, and daughters Emma, 3, Taylor, 5, and Autumn, 11.

The New York Times has announced that Todd Haskell ’90, vice president of business development, has assumed responsibility for the advertising functions of NYTimes.com. In his current role Haskell has been responsible for the development and execution of the long-term sales strategy that supports the Media Group properties, including The New York Times newspaper, the magazines, NYTimes.com, the International Herald Tribune and WQXR-FM. He also manages many of the departments that support advertising revenue growth objectives. His expanded role will add responsibility for the NYTimes.com sales department, advertising operations and enhancing the company’s leadership position in the digital advertising community. Before joining the Times organization he held various positions at Meredith Corporation, including general manager of Ladies' Home Journal and managing director of Meredith Integrated Marketing. A Dana Scholar and history major at St. Lawrence, he earned an MBA degree from Fordham University in 1997. He was also active in Thelmo, Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity, Interfraternity Council and the Laurentian Singers.

The Financial Times announces the appointment of Stephen Howe ’76 as president of the Financial Times in the Americas, as of June 1, 2007.  In his new role, Howe will represent the FT and is primarily responsible for driving advertising revenues and managing the brand’s performance and growth in the U.S.  He also joins the FT board.

Howe was appointed vice president, advertising for The Financial Times in February 2004 and senior vice president in January 2006.  During this time, he oversaw print and online advertising operations and sales in the Americas. He was previously vice president of advertising for The Wall Street Journal, where he directed the newspaper’s display, financial and classified advertising sales staff and managed advertising services and support operations.  He also worked closely with counterparts at the paper’s interactive and international editions.  

General Electric Company has announced that University Trustee James “Jay” Ireland III ’77 has been named president and CEO of GE Asset Management Incorporated (GEAM). In this role, he becomes a member of GE’s Corporate Executive Council and the GE Capital Board of Directors.

After graduating from St. Lawrence with a government major and serving as a U.S. Army officer, Ireland joined GE in 1980. He held several financial and product management leadership positions at GE Plastics in the U.S. and Europe and led GE’s investor communications and corporate audit staff. He was named CFO of GE Plastics in 1997 and became president of NBC Television Stations in 1999. He was promoted to president of NBC Universal Television Stations and Network Operations in December 2006.

GEAM is a global asset manager wholly owned by General Electric Company; it manages nearly $200 billion for a wide variety of clients around the world. Investment strategies are offered across all major asset classes, including U.S. and international equities, fixed income and alternative assets.


New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis has announced the selection of William C. “Willie” Janeway ’85 as regional director for DEC's Region 3 office, which serves the counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester. He had previously been director of government relations for the Nature Conservancy in New York, serving as the Conservancy's liaison in building partnerships with government agencies on cooperative environmental conservation development projects across the state.

In the late 1990s, he was executive director of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, helping raise $23 million to expand the preserve and advance conservation of the rare inland pine barrens. Following that, he was executive director of the Hudson Valley Greenway Conservancy; from 1985 to 1994, he worked for the Adirondack Mountain Club, coordinating the funding of education projects, long-term planning, daily operations and the trails and wilderness programs. At St. Lawrence, he majored in economics, concentrating in environmental studies, and was a leader in the renaissance of the Outing Club in the mid-1980s.

Mike Keenan ’72 is the new head coach of the Calgary Flames, his eighth National Hockey League coaching job. The Flames went 43-25-10, finishing eighth in the Western Conference last season, before losing to the Detroit Red Wings in six games in the first round of the playoffs. Keenan won the Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers in 1994; he was honored as the NHL's top coach in 1985 after leading the Philadelphia Flyers to the Stanley Cup finals, and took the Chicago Blackhawks to the Cup finals in 1992. Keenan has also coached St. Louis, Vancouver, Boston and Florida. Going into the 2007-08 season, he has 569 victories in 1,014 games as an NHL coach.

Dr. Lynne T. Nicolson ‘79, M.D., of Niskayuna, N.Y., a board-certified physician in physical medicine and rehabilitation, has been named medical director of Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital, Schenectady, N.Y.  She has been on the hospital’s staff since 1986, having served as chief of the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation, chief and vice chief of staff, and medical director of the Spinal Cord Injury Program. Her special clinical interests include stroke and spinal cord injury rehabilitation, and she is often invited to speak about these topics before community and professional groups, as well as for the electronic and print media.

After graduating cum laude with departmental honors in chemistry, Dr. Nicolson earned her medical degree from Albany Medical College of Union University.  She completed a residency at Strong Memorial Hospital/Monroe Community Hospital in Rochester, N.Y. She and her husband, Dr. Douglas Hamilton ’79, are the parents of Caitlin Hamilton ’10.

Recuperating from open heart surgery, Priscilla Harvey Schroeder ’56 (third from left, front) was saddened to realize that attending a performance by the Laurentian  Singers during their Spring Break tour of Southern California last  March would be out the question. So, the 32-member group came to her  instead. Schroeder, a past Alumni Executive Council member and longtime  University volunteer who lives in Westlake Village, Cal., helped  arrange the Singers’ tour stops, including a couple in her community.  The bus full of students, with Director Barry Torres (right, with beard and glasses), found its way to  the Schroeder home, Schroeder explained to a local online newspaper  reporter, who wrote, “Bolstered by Schroeder friends invited for the  special occasion, the (students) sang popular and school tunes.”

 “It was probably the thrill of a lifetime to be serenaded by my  University choir,” Schroeder told the reporter. “Even my friends  teared when they sang the alma mater. I’ll never forget it.”

The Mississippi Sea Wolves of the East Coast Hockey League have announced the appointment of Leif Skodnick ’02 as the club’s director of communications. Skodnick spent the 2006-07 season as the director of broadcasting and public relations with the ECHL’s Johnstown Chiefs. He previously worked in public and community relations with the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League and spent two years in the communications department of the ECHL. The Canadian studies and history major will do radio broadcasts of all 72 Sea Wolves regular-season games and all Kelly Cup Playoff games and will handle the organization’s public and media relations needs as the team returns to action following a two-year hiatus thanks to major damage inflicted upon their arena in Biloxi from Hurricane Katrina. 

Sarge Whittier ’57, holding plaque, was honored in July by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) with its Lifetime Achievement Award. With him at the presentation, at CASE’s annual meeting in Chicago, were, from left, his wife, Lynn; Julian Bivins, assistant vice president for development and public affairs at the University of Virginia and chair of the CASE Board of Trustees; and John Lippincott, CASE president.

The honor recognizes Whittier’s contributions to the profession of higher-education advancement. A fundraising consultant at Barnes & Roche and former vice president for development at St. Lawrence, for more than 30 years, he has been a leader, mentor, teacher and friend to hundreds of professionals. Many, including numerous St. Lawrence alumni, who gathered for the award, credit Whittier with teaching them the basics of the profession as well as the strategies for successful fundraising campaigns. During his 28-year tenure at St. Lawrence, Whittier oversaw two successful capital campaigns and was instrumental in strengthening the institution’s alumni base. He served as a CASE trustee 1976-1984 and was chair of the CASE board in 1982-83. In 1983, he was one of the first three recipients of Fulbright Fellowships for administrators. He has also received CASE’s Hesburgh Medal, given to educators who best exemplify the qualities of University of Notre Dame President Theodore Hesburgh.
 
Charlotte “Charlie” Saucier Mahoney ’69 was awarded the Monroe (Mich.) County United Way Guardian Angel Volunteer of the Year award for her dedication to and involvement in the Monroe County community.  Her efforts were instrumental in the development and implementation of the Monroe County Health Plan, Habitat for Humanity's first Monroe County Youth Build, the United Way's Countywide Health Check Program and the County's 10-year plan to address homelessness.  Retired from DTE Energy as a regional manager since 2001, she is president of Four-M Associates, a government relations management firm in Livonia, Mich., a past president of the Detroit-based INFORUM (formerly Women's Economic Club) and a Civil Service commissioner for the city of Livonia.   

Steve Cady ’75 was honored in October 2006 when the University of Miami (Ohio) christened Cady Arena, what is reported to be one of the finest ice arenas in the world, in his honor.  Cady has been instrumental in building the hockey program at Miami since 1976, turning a men’s club program into one of the nation’s most respected NCAA Division I operations.  Besides coaching and teaching, Steve also co-authored High Performance Skating for Hockey, one of the bibles of skating instruction.  Steve will serve on the Men’s Division I NCAA Ice Hockey Championship Committee for the next four years.

John Jeffire ’85 of Clinton Township, Mich., was awarded a gold medal for his novel Motown Burning in the 2007 Independent Publisher Regional Book Awards. These regional “IPPYs” were designed to spotlight the best regional titles from around North America. A total of 688 entries were received from across the U.S. and Canada. Entrants were judged alongside books for and about their regions only, based on their quality and regional significance. Jeffire is one of only 10 regional gold medalists.  More about the book can be found at http://johnjeffire.com.

Matt Geiger ’99, in his second year of business, received the Woodburn Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Business of the Year Award. Matt was also recognized by the City of Woodburn, Ore., with the 2006 Distinguished First Citizen Award. The award is given to the person who most exemplifies the characteristics of a community leader and for contributions of volunteer work and community development. Matt has been married to Kim for four years and has owned his own insurance agency with American Family Insurance for three.

Bernard Smith ’01 was recently selected by Brandweek Magazine as one of 10 "Marketers of the Next Generation," a list of "the hottest marketers under the age of 40." Smith, head of marketing and promotions for UA Marketing in New York, is the only individual on the list in his 20s. The article states, "He turned a passion for ice hockey into a chance at a better education. Now he's skating through the business world with the likes of Diddy, Lucky Jeans and DJ 'Fatman' Scoop. Smith's firm has worked with Russell Simmons' Phat Farm on clothing promotions, has put together marketing deals for New York Hot 97 DJ Fatman Scoop and has worked with Lucky Jeans to launch a line focused at kids."