Reunion Years - DePaul University

DEPAUL 

magazine 

S u m m e r 2 0 1 2 

SUCCESS STORIES 

from 

ALUMNI UNDER 40

Front cover 

Mitesh Dixit (LAS ’98), an architect 

based in Rotterdam, runs major 

projects around the world. 

4 

Share Your DePaul Pride— 

Here, There and Everywhere 

If you’re heading out for a 

vacation this summer, be sure to 

pack your favorite DePaul gear. 

We’re collecting fun photos of 

alumni decked out in Blue Demons 

attire or otherwise showing their 

DePaul pride. Snap a picture and 

send it to dpalumni@depaul.edu 

with your name and the location 

where the photo was taken. Highresolution 

images preferred. 

10 

7 

Carol Sadtler, Editor 

Christian Anderson, Contributing writer 

Kris Gallagher, Contributing writer 

Louisa M. Worthington-Fitzgerald, 

Contributing writer 

Maria-Romina Hench, Copy editor and 

contributing writer 

Read us online at depaul.edu/magazine 

20 

DePaul Magazine is published for alumni, 

staff, faculty and friends by University 

Marketing Communications. Inquiries, 

comments and letters are welcome and 

should be addressed to DePaul Magazine, 

University Marketing Communications, 

1 E. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604. 

Call 312.362.8824 

Email depaulmag@depaul.edu. 

DePaul University is an equal opportunity 

employer and educator.

t a b l e of c o n t e n t s 

University News 

Celebration Commencement 4 

Partnerships Lake View High School 6 

Exhibits New at the Museum 7 

Progress Campaign Update 8 

Features 

Spotlight Alumni Stars under 40 10 

Archives Football at DePaul 20 

Alumni Connections 

News Info You Can Use 22 

Class Notes Who’s Doing What 24 

Alumni Planner Coming Events 28

Since We Were Last Together 

Your university keeps moving onward and upward. 

There’s always a lot going on around campus and in the lives 

of DePaul alumni that attracts attention from Chicago to the global community. 

Here are just a few such items since our last issue. 

DePaul student work on The Red Line Project, a news, entertainment and community website, won three prestigious 

Peter Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism from the Chicago Headline Club in May. The site was a finalist in 

four categories and took home three Lisagors, competing against Chicago’s professional journalism outlets. 

Paula Luff, associate vice president for Financial Aid, DePaul students and J.D. Bindenagel, then-vice 

president for Community, Government and International Affairs, joined Sen. Dick Durbin at a news 

conference on the Lincoln Park Campus to support legislation that would keep student loan interest 

rates from rising. The news conference was reported nationally by NBC and locally by WLS-TV. 

DePaul University is No. 19 in Diversity MBA Magazine’s annual 50 Out Front for Diversity Leadership, the top 

ranking achieved by an institution of higher learning. The rankings focused on workplace diversity and leadership 

opportunities for people of color at a wide range of for- and non-profit organizations. 

For the third year in a row, DePaul earned a ranking in The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 

Green Colleges. The guide, which was created by The Princeton Review and the U.S. Green 

Building Council, features colleges in both the United States and Canada that have 

comprehensive sustainability plans in place. 

The Hollywood Reporter praised The Theatre School for its low student-faculty ratio and notable alumni as the school 

made the entertainment magazine’s list of top drama schools. Others on the list: The Julliard School, Royal Academy 

of Dramatic Art in London, Yale University School of Drama and Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. 

Melissa Ockerman, assistant professor in the College of Education, was named Counselor 

Educator of the Year by the Illinois School Counselor Association. Two alumni of the college’s 

graduate school counseling program also were honored: Dustin Seemann (EDU ’08) was 

named High School Counselor of the Year, and Kim Kopec (EDU ’04) was named Internship 

Supervisor of the Year. 

DePaul’s newest academic building, Arts & Letters Hall, has received LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green 

Building Council, which recognizes leadership in energy efficiency and environmental design. The building’s 

estimated annual energy savings over a standard code-compliant building of its size is 26 percent, according to 

Illinois Clean Energy.

U n i v e r s i t y N e w s 

Commencement 2012 

Commencement 2012 Honors Graduates, National Figures 

Nationally acclaimed experts in education, theatre, law, business, computer science and public relations were invited as speakers 

and honorary degree recipients as part of DePaul’s 114th commencement celebration this spring. 

Seven ceremonies featured the following dignitaries: 

College of Law 

Speaker: John B. Simon, a nationally 

renowned attorney with the firm of Jenner 

and Block and former federal prosecutor 

who is a leader in Chicago’s civic and 

philanthropic spheres. Simon also is a 

member of DePaul’s board of trustees 

and a former chair. 

College of Education 

Speaker: Linda Darling-Hammond, 

a professor of education at Stanford 

University and one of the nation’s top 

experts on education reform. She led 

President Barack Obama’s education 

transition team. 

School of Music and The Theatre School 

(combined ceremony) 

Speaker: Jackie Taylor, actress, theatrical 

producer and founder of Chicago’s iconic 

Black Ensemble Theater, which recently 

opened a multimillion-dollar performing arts 

and cultural center in Chicago’s Uptown 

community. 

School for New Learning 

Speaker: Laurent Parks-Daloz, author and 

pioneer in adult learning and the utilization 

of life experience in shaping education 

programs in the United States. 

College of Liberal Arts and Social 

Sciences and College of Science 

and Health 


Speaker: E.O. Wilson, a Harvard professor 

and two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, 

one of the world’s most influential biologists 

and evolutionary theorists of the past 

half-century. 

College of Computing and Digital Media 

and College of Communication 


Speaker: Alan C. Kay, a seminal force in 

the development of the personal computer 

and the Internet through his work with the 

Advanced Research Project Agency at the 

University of Utah and the Xerox Palo Alto 

Research Center. 

Also honored at the ceremony was 

Al Golin, a leading figure in the public 

relations industry and founder of the 

international agency GolinHarris, an 

advisor to major global corporations 

and organizations. 

College of Commerce 

Speaker: Brian Campbell, industrialist, 

investor and philanthropist who has led the 

growth of several investment and 

manufacturing concerns while supporting 

numerous charities throughout the Midwest. 

Also honored was James J. O’Connor, 

former chairman and CEO of Commonwealth 

Edison, current chair of Armstrong Industries 

and co-chairman of the Big Shoulders 

Fund, a leading organization providing 

access to Catholic elementary and 

secondary education for low-income, 

inner-city children.

Job Outlook Trending Up for 2012 Graduates 

As this year’s graduates look for jobs, the employment 

landscape looks better than it did last year. 

“Things are looking much more promising for 2012 graduates. 

We’ve seen a big increase in job postings on DePaul’s recruiting 

site,” says Gillian Steele, managing director of DePaul’s Career 

Center. “The job postings in May were up 43 percent over May 

2011. The 862 jobs posted represent the third-highest total since 

January 2007—the highest having occurred in March 2012.” 

Eighty-two percent of these job postings were for full-time 

positions. Among the positions most in demand are those in 

professional services, health/social and human services, and 

accounting/finance/banking, Steele said. The top seven bachelor’s 

degrees in demand are business, accounting, engineering, computer 

science, physical sciences, communication and social sciences. 

At DePaul, industries showing the largest growth in job 

postings from 2010 to 2011 are professional, health care, social 

and human services, and accounting/finance/banking. 

According to Recruiting Trends 2011-12, nearly 40 percent of 

employers will hire candidates from all majors, seeking the best 

talent regardless of field of study. Computer science majors are 

still in strong demand in nearly every sector, and the supply of 

graduates will not be sufficient to fill all available positions. 

Accounting, finance and supply chain management are also 

expected to do well this year. 

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) 

predicts that employers will hire 10.2 percent more new college 

graduates than they did in 2010-11. More than half of employers 

intend to increase salaries an average of 3.3 percent. 

Employers value the fresh perspective and skill set younger 

workers bring to the table. Many companies that participated in 

NACE’s survey stated that their organizations are too “top heavy.” 

In addition to increasing hiring due to company expansion and 

business growth, employers are looking to replace a retiring 

workforce and gain younger talent. Additionally, many employers 

plan to hire more interns this year—8 percent more than last year. 

Internship programs again emerged as the top recruiting 

strategy used by most employers (not including postings to college 

and organization websites). Social media are now used by 36 percent 

of employers (up 10 percent from last year) and are expected to 

become core recruiting tools as more organizations quickly adopt 

various media options. 

Seventy-three percent of employers said they preferred 

candidates with relevant work experience, according to NACE. At 

DePaul, 68 percent of those who had academic internships reported 

that it led to employment, supporting the emerging paradigm that 

internships have become the new entry-level jobs. 

DePaul’s Alumni Relations works in partnership with the 

Career Center to offer Corporate Connectors, a program to help 

DePaul students and alumni make a smooth transition to a new job 

or prepare for an upcoming interview at a specific corporation. 

Several hundred alumni have offered to meet or correspond with 

fellow alumni or students who are applying to their companies. 

These volunteers welcome DePaul-affiliated new hires or interns 

who’ve recently joined their firms. 

s u m m e r 

5

U n i v e r s i t y N e w s 

DePaul to Boost Science and Technology Learning for Lake View High School Students 

DePaul has worked for years with middle school teachers to increase 

their knowledge in math and science teaching and has invested in 

high-quality faculty and facilities in science and technology. 

“For many years, DePaul University has been deeply committed to 

enhancing the educational experiences of Chicago Public School 

students and teachers through a wide range of initiatives, from training 

science and math teachers to providing classical music instruction for 

grammar school students,” Fr. Holtschneider said. 

“This new partnership between Lake View High School and DePaul 

bolsters that bond and furthers our mission to be an institutional 

anchor for Chicago. By providing Lake View students with greater 

access to DePaul’s high-quality faculty and facilities in science and 

technology, we hope to ease their transition into college and send 

them on the path toward entering careers in these fields.” 

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (left) and the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, 

C.M., DePaul president, tour Lake View High School. 

DePaul University will continue its long involvement with Chicago 

Public Schools in a new partnership with Lake View High School, 

providing opportunities for the high school students through the 

university’s science and technology programs. 

The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., president, announced the 

partnership with Mayor Rahm Emanuel on May 23 at Senn High 

School, the partner school for Loyola University Chicago. The mayor is 

encouraging Chicago’s four-year universities to pair with the city’s public 

high schools to help the schools “launch in a new direction,” Emanuel 

said. The universities will offer programs and services tailored to each 

school’s needs with the hope of boosting the schools’ achievement. 

Forming a bond with Lake View will be natural for DePaul. Next year, 

the high school will be one of the city’s five Early College STEM 

Schools (ECSS), focusing on technology skills and career readiness. 

DePaul is the first four-year university planning to offer college 

courses through ECSS by giving eligible Lake View students access 

to some of DePaul’s college courses. To align the school’s curriculum 

with college standards, DePaul will support Lake View’s curriculum 

development, providing data analysis and on-going education for 

its teachers. 

“I want all the potential that exists in DePaul’s math classes, their 

science classes, their teachers and their students to apply to our kids,” 

Emanuel said. 

Lake View students will benefit from DePaul’s commitment to 

enhancing its science and technology programs. In 2011, DePaul 

established its 10th college—the College of Science and Health—to 

respond to the growing demand for well-educated professionals in the 

rapidly growing science and health care fields. To support high-quality 

science and education research, DePaul has constructed two science 

facilities in the past 15 years on its Lincoln Park Campus. Forty-five 

percent of the computer degrees held by Chicagoans come from 

DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Media. 

NATO Host Committee 

Director Addresses Consular 

Corps Lunch Guests 

The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., 

president, welcomed diplomats to Cortelyou 

Commons on April 12 for DePaul’s Seventh 

Annual Consular Corps of Chicago luncheon 

and thanked them for supporting the 

university’s international initiatives. The 

consuls general heard from Lori Healey, 

executive director of the Chicago NATO Host 

Committee (at left), who described the city’s 

plans for the NATO summit on May 20 and 21. 

DePaul Art Museum Awarded 

LEED Silver Certification 

The DePaul University Art Museum recently 

received LEED Silver certification from the 

U.S. Green Building Council for sustainable 

design and construction principles. 

The facility includes sustainable features, such 

as energy-efficient HVAC and lighting systems, 

storm-water collection, retention and filtering 

systems, water-efficient landscaping, a partial 

green roof and reflective roof coatings. These 

design elements reduce energy consumption 

by 17.6 percent.

DePaul Art Museum Exhibit “Draws” 

on Images of Social Transformation 

Frank Selby, Light Blue Riot, 2010 

Showcasing 13 artists who use drawing to meticulously 

translate images originally received through photo-based 

media or digital circulation, the exhibition “Drawn from 

Photography” includes images of war and protest as well 

as views of urban landscapes and industrial developments. 

Free and open to the public, the exhibit runs through Aug. 19. 

“In focusing on the act of drawing as well as on the content and 

meanings of their images, the artists in the exhibition engage and 

connect political events and meditative practice,” says Louise 

Lincoln, director of the DePaul Art Museum. “The works become a 

way for artists—and viewers—to understand our place in the world.” 

More than any other art form, drawing is traditionally 

understood to be an inherently intimate and direct means of 

expression. The act of drawing is a way to deliberately slow things 

down. Whether using found media sources or their own 

photographs, the artists share a reconstructive, labor-intensive 

impulse that counteracts the rapid dissemination of information 

that defines the media age. 

The artists in the exhibition adopt a variety of approaches 

to their subjects. Emily Prince and Mary Temple create evolving 

installations that respond to contemporary events, such as the war 

in Iraq; Andrea Bowers, Sam Durant, D-L Alvarez and Frank Selby 

replicate iconic photos of political clashes and countercultural 

movements; Fernando Bryce comprehensively redraws historical 

documents; and Ewan Gibbs and Richard Forster copy their own 

snapshots of the changing industrial landscape. In each case, 

drawing as translation marks a desire for agency coupled with a 

sense of distance between the world and the artist’s attempt to 

comprehend or impact it. 

“Drawn from Photography” is organized by The Drawing 

Center in New York and curated by center curator Claire Gilman. 

For more information, visit museums.depaul.edu. 

s u m m e r 

7

Campaign Raises Sights to $300 million 

The Many Dreams, One Mission Campaign for DePaul surpassed its original $250 million goal in February 2012, 

with two years remaining in the campaign timeline. 

Following a recommendation by the capital campaign committee and university leadership, the DePaul University Board of 

Trustees voted to expand the campaign, increasing the goal to $300 million. The campaign will continue on its original time 

frame through June 30, 2014. 

“The Many Dreams, One Mission Campaign has been the most ambitious in our university’s history, and I am very grateful and 

pleased to say that our alumni and friends have responded with historic vision and generosity,” says the Rev. Dennis H. 

Holtschneider, C.M., president of DePaul University. “Our trustees, campaign volunteers, leadership donors, and alumni from 

all ages and backgrounds recognize the importance of this effort in fulfilling the dreams of students and their families and in 

strengthening the DePaul mission for future generations.” 

“In setting the bar higher, we are confident that the same commitment that resulted in the campaign’s early success— 

commitment to DePaul’s current and future students—will enable the university to reach this new goal,” says Mary Finger, 

senior vice president for Advancement. 

Scholarship Resources Key to Mission 

The Many Dreams, One Mission 

Campaign is the most ambitious 

fundraising initiative in the history of 

DePaul University. In announcing the 

campaign’s new $300 million goal, 

campaign leaders set as a primary 

focus the achievement of the $100 

million goal for scholarships. 

Tena 

To date, DePaul has raised 

$75 million toward the $100 million goal for student 

scholarships. Scholarship funds are distributed among 

students in DePaul’s 10 colleges. 

Lisandra Tena (THE ’12) ran away from a troubled home 

and dropped out of high school, but eventually found her 

way through a GED program and community college. 

“Before DePaul, I could only dream of experiencing an 

education from The Theatre School, since there was no 

possible way my father could afford it, having eight other 

children to support,” she says. “Now, I am happy to say I am 

the first in my family to attend college, but I am even happier 

to inspire my younger siblings and encourage them to dream 

big, because anything is possible. Scholarships made my 

dream into reality.” 

The Many Dreams, One Mission Campaign bolsters the 

university’s commitment to the education of first-generation 

college students, especially those from diverse cultural and 

socioeconomic backgrounds. Scholarship gifts are gifts of 

opportunity, helping DePaul to provide high-quality 

education to students demonstrating intellectual potential 

and academic achievement. Building these scholarship 

resources strengthens DePaul’s mission to assure talented 

students from diverse backgrounds are able to strive and 

achieve an excellent DePaul education.

of this campaign and its record-breaking success thus far 

signify recognition on the part of the donor community that 

our university has matured as one of the leading institutions 

of higher learning in the country. We must continue to work 

hard to fulfill the responsibilities that come with leadership. 

This campaign will provide DePaul with critical resources 

to continue to offer an excellent education across the 

disciplines to the most talented students from a broad 

cross-section of backgrounds.” 

Greenberg Gift Supports Pioneering 

Collaboration 

Facilities Foster Academic Excellence 

The performing arts play a crucial role at the university, 

fulfilling DePaul’s Vincentian mission to educate both the 

mind and the heart, awakening within individuals a response 

that can help them realize their potential as human beings. 

The Many Dreams, One Mission Campaign for the Performing 

Arts will help ensure that theatre and music remain important 

components of university life for the next 100 years. 

Completing much-needed, state-of-the-art facilities for 

DePaul’s renowned theatre and music schools is a top focus 

of the expanded campaign goal. While The Theatre School 

and School of Music are ranked among the country’s top 

conservatory-style programs in their respective disciplines, 

the schools have long been housed in inadequate facilities. 

The campaign aims to create spaces for DePaul’s theatre and 

music students to learn their art in facilities commensurate 

with their respective schools’ national reputation. 

In addition to highly qualified faculty, strong financial 

aid and scholarship support, along with easy access to an 

arts-rich environment like Chicago, every truly excellent 

performing arts program requires top-notch facilities. These 

buildings, says John Culbert, dean of The Theatre School, 

are “physical manifestations of DePaul’s commitment to 

providing a world-class education and will aid in attracting 

top faculty and students while facilitating specialized 

excellence.” 

Alumni Giving Key to Campaign Success 

Gifts at all levels are instrumental toward reaching and 

exceeding milestones in the Many Dreams, One Mission 

Campaign for DePaul University. “The historic $30 million 

gift from Richard Driehaus is the largest among thousands of 

generous investments by alumni in the Campaign for DePaul 

University,” says Fr. Holtschneider. “In many ways, the goals 

Donna and Jack Greenberg look on as Marc Skvirsky, vice 

president and chief program officer of Facing History and 

Ourselves, and DePaul President the Rev. Dennis H. 

Holtschneider, C.M., sign a collaboration agreement at a 

May event. Chicago Director of Facing History and 

Ourselves Bonnie Oberman is at right. 

A visionary campaign commitment from DePaul alumnus 

and trustee Jack Greenberg (BUS ’64, LAW ’86, DHL ’99) 

and his wife, Donna, has led to a first-of-its-kind, multi-year 

collaboration between DePaul University and the 

international nonprofit organization Facing History and 

Ourselves. The collaboration will incorporate Facing 

History’s acclaimed resources, materials and classroom 

strategies on civic engagement and social justice throughout 

programs for working and aspiring teachers in DePaul’s 

College of Education. 

The collaboration, with the potential to impact 

thousands of elementary and high school students, is the first 

between Facing History and a university college of education. 

“Facing History and Ourselves has developed very powerful 

and effective pedagogies and professional development 

programs for teachers that address some of the most critically 

urgent issues of our time,” says Fr. Holtschneider. “This 

agreement strengthens and extends the College of Education’s 

programming in a manner consistent with the university’s 

historical commitment to social justice.” 

For more information on the campaign, including the current 

fundraising total, please visit campaign.depaul.edu. 

s u m m e r 

9

As you know, DePaul University alumni are a wide array of 

interesting and accomplished people. To celebrate that, every 

year we choose a group of young alumni whose careers and 

lives are on the rise—based on nominations from themselves, 

the faculty members who taught them, their friends, or others 

who have noticed their achievements. 

As your university grows—with the addition of two new 

colleges in the past few years—we increase the number of 

alumni selected to reflect the ever-evolving opportunities 

for growth that DePaul offers to those who look for them. 

We hope you enjoy this seventh annual issue and find it 

an interesting mix of professions, personal histories and 

achievements. May it highlight for you, and anyone you share 

it with, the real measures of a DePaul education—not only 

professional success, but creativity and satisfaction in other 

facets of life. 

You may be inspired to nominate yourself or other alumni 

for next year’s issue. Just send a few details about your 

achievements or those of another DePaul graduate. 

Email us at depaulmag@depaul.edu.

Seventh Annual Edition 

Flying High: 

SUCCESS STORIES 

from 

ALUMNI UNDER 40

Carla Stone (EDU ’97) 

Math and Science Teacher 

Nichols Middle School, Evanston 

Mitesh Dixit (LAS ’98) 

Design Director 

Claus en Kaan Architecten 

It’s hard to say what inspires Golden Apple winner Carla Stone more— 

basketball or chocolate-covered ants. 

She credits basketball, and in particular DePaul women’s basketball Coach 

Doug Bruno, with teaching her skills and strategies that she uses in the 

classroom every day: an intense work ethic, visualizing success, being quick 

on her feet, service to others and the importance of teamwork. 

“Basketball is like a game of life,” says Stone, who played center and forward for 

the Blue Demons from 1991 to 1995, followed by 11 years on the pro and semipro 

circuit abroad. “You have to overcome obstacles and any kind of negative 

situations, find a way to look at it in a more positive way, persevere.” 

Teaching, like basketball, should be fun. Stone admires how her 12th-grade 

biology teacher used “crazy, off-the-wall” tactics such as candied ants to draw 

students in. She makes math and science just as invigorating for her sixthgraders, 

who create everything from cooking shows to multimedia presentations. 

“I’m really focused on reaching all my writers, my performing artists, my 

architects, my builders, just really understanding that kids learn in so many 

different ways,” she says. “Credit to Doug, credit to DePaul, for keeping me in 

tune with the individuality of each child.” 

Her next challenging population? Introverts. Ebullient by nature, Stone is 

studying how to work effectively with quiet students during one of the free 

graduate courses she’s taking, courtesy of the Golden Apple Foundation. She’s 

close to finishing her book “Path of the Enlightened Teacher: Lessons in Self 

and Classroom Motivation.” (She also co-authored “Three Diseases of the 

Prostate” with her father, Albert Stone.) And, she’s collaborating with other 

Golden Apple winners on ways to address educational issues ranging from 

poverty to preparing the next generation of teachers. She says that, too, 

reminds her of DePaul. 

“I love being associated with an institution that’s known for helping people,” 

Stone says. “I am very grateful to DePaul for the whole ideology of being a 

Vincentian. It’s a way of life.” 

Mitesh Dixit remembers that he sometimes rolled out of bed to make his evening 

classes at DePaul in his pajamas. “I was on my own schedule,” he says. 

Although he says he’s been “lucky to be at the right place at the right time” in 

his career as a successful international architect, it’s tempting to attribute his 

accomplishments to his ability to create his own way. 

Instead of becoming a chemical engineer like his father and siblings, Dixit says, 

“I never thought once about my career” when he came to DePaul. He followed 

his interests in politics and philosophy, soaking up ideas, conversing with his 

professors and hanging out with a group of older writers off campus. “DePaul 

taught me how to think,” he says. 

Dixit went to graduate school in architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. 

“I wanted to deal with people, cities, cultures—and I wanted to make something. 

I chose architecture so I could physically practice politics.” 

He joined Skidmore, Owings and Merrill after graduation. From the bottom rung 

of the global firm’s hierarchy, he was scooped up by one of the firm’s partners to 

work on a crash project to design a tower for Shanghai when everyone else was 

off for a holiday. “I had never done a tower in my life, so I bought a bunch of 

books,” Dixit says. He and the partner won the competition and continued to 

work together. Eventually, he managed his own competition team, running 

projects that included the Transbay Tower in San Francisco and The New 

Philippine Stock Exchange in Manila. 

About three years later, Dixit joined Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), 

where he worked with founder Rem Koolhass on innovative projects such as the 

Taipei Performing Arts Center in Taiwan. “The project brings together Rem’s history 

of working in theatre and my experience in working with towers. You’re constantly 

evolving—so the idea gets richer and richer as you keep going,” he says. 

The Taipei project allows the three theatres to function separately or as one and 

incorporates a vibrant night market that existed on the site. “It was important 

because it dealt with so many layers—the city, the theatre, the culture— 

simultaneously. It fulfills the requirement to make a place for a unique theatre 

experience. The building performs,” Dixit says. 

Design Director Dixit now works with Claus en Kaan in Rotterdam. “Every year 

of my life has gotten better,” he says. “I really want to make something with this 

next step.”

Patricia Esparza (CSH MA ’06, PHD ’09) 

Assistant Professor, Webster University Geneva 

Consultant, World Health Organization 

Ryan P. Theriault (SNL ’03, LAW ’07) 

Attorney 

Foote, Meyers, Mielke & Flowers 

Patricia Esparza’s world turned upside down in junior high school. The native of 

Santa Ana, Calif., was chosen to be educated in elite boarding schools on the 

East Coast. 

“It was very, very difficult. I grew up in a city with 99 percent minorities and went 

where I was in the 1 percent. But yet it opened up a whole world for me,” she says. 

Esparza continued to expand her world, studying psychology at Pomona College 

and then moving to New York to work as a labor organizer for textile workers. “I 

saw the strength of people’s ability to come together in an organized way and 

decide on a set of goals that they wanted to achieve to improve everybody’s 

welfare,” she says. 

Seeing connections between people’s mental health and their ability to be 

effective—and the synergy between the community and the individual—Esparza 

looked for a graduate psychology program that offered a combination of clinical 

and community study. “DePaul was the only one in the U.S.,” she says. 

In Professor Bernadette Sanchez, Esparza found a mentor for her focus on 

community/clinical psychology research, and in Professor Kathryn Grant, she 

found support for her desire to link academia with public policy changes. 

Through grants and fellowships they developed, Esparza began to build her 

career, interning at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva for a 

summer and also connecting with members of the Illinois State Senate. 

Today, along with a research and teaching post at Webster University in 

Geneva, Esparza influences global public health policies through her work 

with WHO. Her recently published, co-edited book is instrumental in creating 

a comprehensive international mental health classification system that will be 

used by mental health professionals around the world. 

She’s happy living near Geneva with her husband and daughter. “I wanted to 

be where the world comes. The world comes to Geneva. This is where policy is 

made,” she says. 

Esparza is grateful for the opportunities that allowed her to use her abilities. 

“If I hadn’t been raised in the U.S. where I earned a free education through 

merit-based scholarships, I would have been lost somewhere,” she says. 

Plaintiff’s attorney Ryan Theriault understands law enforcement in a way that 

many attorneys don’t—from the inside. 

In addition to having brothers who are police officers, he worked for a large 

suburban Chicago police department for eight years. One of his jobs was 

assigning tasks to offenders sentenced to community service. Rather than 

sending them all off to pick up trash by the highway, he developed a program 

to match them with tasks that took advantage of any special skills they had. 

For example, a carpenter atoning for a drunken driving conviction did his 

community-service hours with Habitat for Humanity. While Theriault has 

moved on, the program is still going strong. 

He now represents plaintiffs in personal injury cases, with a special interest in 

police and firefighters injured on the job. 

“Often there’s a David versus Goliath factor, with our little firm taking on large 

corporations,” Theriault says. “A lot of people won’t stand up to the big 

companies even if their rights have been violated.” 

Theriault always knew he wanted to go to DePaul, “if they’d take me.” His 

father had been a student at DePaul Academy, a boys’ high school formerly 

affiliated with the university, and inculcated his children with the Vincentian 

tradition of service. 

With some prodding from his wife, Theriault earned his undergraduate degree in 

legal studies from DePaul’s School for New Learning, going to school at night 

while working. A law degree earned the same way fulfilled a long-held dream. 

His heart has always been in trial law. “I want to help people, as hokey as it 

sounds,” he says. “We deal with a lot of tragedy, like we did at the police 

department. People throw themselves in your lap and cry. Although a 

psychology degree may have been helpful, this is where my legal training 

combined with my public service background is really pressed into service.” 

Theriault, a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, also offers his 

services pro bono for Prairie State Legal Services. He has volunteered for the 

Kane County Bar Association’s Ask a Lawyer phone bank and has served as 

a judge in student moot court competitions. 

f e a t u r e 

13

Jenny Januszewski (SNL ’02) 

Director and Actor 

Paula Hunsche (CMN MA ’06) 

Executive Media Director 

Jacobson Rost 

When it comes to a new creative opportunity, Jenny Januszewski goes for it. 

And she often reaps the rewards. 

She moved to Hollywood about three years ago without any work lined up. 

“All I knew was that there would be warm weather and palm trees. Both are 

things I’m quite partial to,” she says. Last year, Januszewski walked the red 

carpet to receive the award for Best Experimental Film at the 3D Film Festival 

in Hollywood. Two of her feature-length screenplays were selected for the 

Beverly Hills Film Festival in 2010 and ’11. 

Januszewski was born in Vietnam and grew up with her Polish-American 

parents and three siblings on a farm in Springport, Mich. In high school, she 

discovered a passion for fine art photography, which her parents supported. 

“Neither were artists themselves, but they created an environment where I was 

exposed to the arts and encouraged to blaze a path. I think my parents were 

rather brave that way,” she says. 

And so was she. When her mom took her and her best friend to meet some of 

the actors after a performance of “Miss Saigon” at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre, 

one of them said that Januszewski should stay and go to school. “One semester 

later, I did,” she says. 

In Chicago, she explored abstract color photography and television and film 

production. She acted in national commercials and an Equity stage production, 

toured the country performing in a musical, and signed with modeling and talent 

agencies. When she landed at the School for New Learning—“after three or four 

colleges”—she studied international business and media coordination. 

“At SNL, I gained the most important skill ever—learning how I learn and work 

best. After attending one of the classes—maybe it was the Lifelong Learning 

course—I realized that I’m someone who needs an enormous amount to do all 

at once,” she says. 

Currently, Januszewski is directing a 2D film based on a short story by Stephen 

King called “The Boogeyman,” a project that suits her talents and aspirations. 

“I want to challenge myself with something different. I’ve never attempted an 

adaptation, and this is my first full-length feature film. 

“There’s not a huge difference between what I do for dollars and what I do for 

personal satisfaction. As I get older, I realize what a luxury that is. Whether it’s a 

motion-picture or still photography, I enjoy creating a story, sharing an emotion 

and creating the environment in which the subject can best share its journey 

with the audience.” 

When Paula Hunsche spoke to a graduate journalism class at DePaul last fall, 

she “told them to take charge of their careers, know themselves and look for 

ways to improve the company they are working for,” she says. It’s these tips that 

have made her more than 13 years in communications so successful. 

Hunsche’s strengths as a writer and presenter led her to major in speech 

communication at Miami University in Ohio. As she pursued a career in public 

relations in Chicago, advertising and media caught her interest. 

Hunsche began her career at Starcom, a leading media agency, as a 

communications architect. There, she pursued a master’s degree to supplement 

her experience with an academic background in advertising. “DePaul’s master’s 

program in advertising and PR was geared toward working professionals. I 

spoke with professors at the College of Communication, and the diligence with 

which my questions were answered cemented my desire to attend DePaul.” 

After earning her master’s degree, Hunsche left Starcom to start her own 

consulting business. Then she was approached by Mindshare, another global 

media company, for an interim position leading the team that provided 

communications support to BP after the Deepwater Horizon Incident in April 2010. 

“BP was tested like few other companies, and the resources and effort they put 

toward addressing the incident were remarkable. I had the responsibility of 

managing the advertising, integrating with the other communication efforts, 

analyzing those efforts and providing recommendations based on the analysis. 

It was a true partnership across BP and their agencies,” Hunsche says. 

Today, as the executive media director at Jacobson Rost, a growing marketing 

communications company, she manages a team of communications strategists 

who work with regional and national clients, including Johnson Controls, 

Kalahari Resorts, Stein Gardens and Gifts, Carl Buddig and BOSS. 

Using Jacobson Rost’s “Truth to Transactions” approach, Hunsche’s team 

discovers the truths that their clients are working to achieve, then develops 

communication strategies and transaction trackers that allow them to apply 

metrics to their work. “Calculating return on investment allows us to make 

smarter marketing decisions. It is tools like this that inspire me and drive my 

recommendations and daily discussions with clients,” Hunsche says. 

Hunsche, mother to three children under 6, says, “I have to make sure that 

everyone is getting my best. Balancing work with life is very important to me.”

SUCCESS 

STORIES 

from 

ALUMNI 

UNDER 40 

P.J. Powers (THE ’95) 

Co-founder and Artistic Director 

TimeLine Theatre 

Nambi E. Kelley (THE ’95) 

Playwright and Actress 

Playwrights Unit, Goodman Theatre 

Thankfully, P.J. Powers’ life has not gone according to plan. It’s one reason why 

TimeLine Theatre was hailed as the country’s Best Company by the Wall Street 

Journal in 2010. 

“The way TimeLine came to be founded is still one of the surprises of my life,” 

says Powers, who began acting at age 5, was in professional shows by age 12, 

and came to The Theatre School (TTS) to prepare for a career onstage. 

He had serious doubts when classmate Nick Bowling (THE ’96) coaxed him and 

four other TTS graduates into founding a theatre company in 1997—one devoted 

to history, at that. “My reluctance at first was misinterpreting the phrase ‘history 

theatre’ as something that’s dry, dusty and overly academic.” 

Instead, TimeLine has spent the past 15 years riveting audiences through 

productions that connect the past with the political and social issues of today. 

Powers was equally reluctant when company members persuaded him to take 

over as artistic director in 1999. Today, he says, “While I still love acting and 

occasionally do it, running this company has become not only my main focus, 

but also my greatest honor.” 

“In some ways, I never trained a day in my life for this job, and in some ways, 

everything I did at DePaul trained me for this job,” he says. “I learned about 

artistic integrity, having a point of view, and using the great gift and platform of 

theatre purposefully. We try to choose plays that we think will mean something 

to people, and that was really instilled in me at DePaul.” 

That’s why he and his classmates run TimeLine differently from most theatres. 

It’s an artistic collective that democratically chooses which shows to produce. 

Powers’ job is to hire directors and designers, cast shows, manage marketing 

and fundraising, and handle the myriad tasks that enable the show to go on. 

He was thrilled when TimeLine was named 2011 Best Theatre by Chicago 

Magazine, but he’s even more proud that the company won two national awards 

for managerial excellence. 

“One of the secrets to TimeLine’s success … is that from day one we realized 

that producing great art alone would not necessarily make us a great arts 

organization. We had to focus as much on being smart business managers as 

we did on being smart theatre producers,” he says. TimeLine has operated in 

the black for 15 years. “In many ways, some of those awards mean more to us 

than those artistic awards, because it speaks to the health behind the scenes, 

which is essential for the work onstage to happen.” 

Like most of her projects, “The Book of Living and Dying” came looking for 

Nambi E. Kelley. 

“I have a firm belief that I don’t choose plays to perform in or to write about. 

They choose me,” says Kelley, who partnered with director Chong Tze Chien 

and fellow playwrights/actors Oliver Chong of Singapore and Antonio Ianniello 

of Italy to adapt “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying” and perform it at the 

Singapore Arts Festival earlier this year. 

Loosely based on the Tibetan reincarnation system, the play “focuses on a 

relationship between a mother and a daughter, echoing the book’s premise that 

every relationship you have is not a singular event in history, but one that is 

repeated in the consciousness of every individual,” says Kelley. 

Similar themes are woven through the play she is writing for Chicago’s Goodman 

Theatre, “For Her as a Piano,” about how the lives of three generations of women 

interconnect across time, space, memory and music. 

“This play … is one of the most important pieces of work I've ever embarked 

upon because it is so personally connected to my own journey as a woman and 

artist,” she says. 

Her journey began when Kelley wrote a piece about her family that was so good 

she used it to audition for plays. She enrolled in The Theatre School as a 

playwright, continued to act, and has successfully blended the two ever since. 

Her award-winning plays have been produced from New York to Los Angeles. 

She recently was commissioned by the American Blues Theatre to adapt “Native 

Son” for the stage, and she received a full scholarship to do a writing residency 

at the Norman Mailer Institute this summer. 

Her stage work, which includes performances with the Goodman, Steppenwolf 

and Victory Gardens theatres in Chicago, is equally acclaimed and includes 

three national tours in South Korea. 

Kelley says her work with “The Book of Living and Dying” is particularly 

challenging because she herself is dealing with the death of a loved one. “When 

other actors embody the roles I’ve written, there is a mask, a cover of sorts. 

Here, where I am performing what I've co-written, there is no mask. It is me out 

there naked, with something that I am still grappling with in my personal life, and 

it's painful. 

“I try to remember that by engaging fully in the material, it is bringing peace and 

quiet to someone who may witness it and is living the same thing.” 

f e a t u r e 

15

Agnieszka Rapacz (BUS ’99) 

Owner 

TeaGschwendner USA 

Jon Harris (LAS ’95, MS ’00) 

Founder and President 

Athlife and the Athlife Foundation 

To see Agnieszka Rapacz in Chicago’s North State Street retail location of 

TeaGschwendner is to catch her excitement about tea. She dips into bins to 

offer visitors smells and tastes of trend teas—macadamia, raspberry chocolate, 

blueberry—and the best versions of classics, such as Earl Gray, Darjeeling 

and jasmine. 

Rapacz recently acquired TeaGschwendner USA, making her a partner in the 

largest retail tea company in the world—Tea & Beyond, doing business as 

TeaGschwendner. Formerly the chief financial officer of its U.S. business, she 

finds that the Germany-based company’s dedication to quality and her high 

standards are a match. 

“I’ve visited the facility twice already, and I’ve seen the high-tech laboratory 

where they test the tea. They go directly to tea gardens all over the world. It’s 

all organic, and we win awards every year,” she says. 

Rapacz, who grew up in Poland, came to the United States with her family 

as a high school senior. “Learning English was the hardest part,” Rapacz says. 

At school, she excelled in mathematics and accounting, entering a state 

competition. She chose DePaul for college, hearing from friends that the 

university had good programs in business and accounting. 

“I became a commerce major right away. The program is very well organized, 

very well put together. DePaul teaches at an advanced level, which includes the 

teaching of accounting on the state and federal level, which is nice to see, and 

I got very well prepared for taxation,” Rapacz says. 

Rapacz progressed in accounting positions for various manufacturing 

companies. By then she had two children. In 2002, she experienced kidney 

failure. “It just happened out of nowhere,” she says. 

After dialysis, a kidney transplant from her sister, and months of therapy and 

recovery, she joined Finn-Power, where she found a great mentor in her CFO. 

“I was a senior accountant there and accelerated to a controller. When I left the 

company, I was ready for a CFO position,” she says. 

In 2011, Rapacz also was ready to represent the United States in the World 

Transplant Games in Sweden. She swam her way to two gold medals and a 

silver, and she was inspired by her fellow athletes, who were all “friendly, happy 

and thankful,” she says. 

The same can be said for her. 

Jon Harris studied political science as an undergraduate at DePaul, but it was 

his four years on the basketball team that shaped his career—not as a pro 

athlete, but as a person who helps athletes with their transition into the postathletic 

life. 

When NFL players retire, for example, Harris says, 78 percent end up broke, 

divorced, or battling substance abuse, sometimes all three, within a year. Many 

never finished college or otherwise planned ahead. 

To help former athletes, Harris founded Athlife in 2004 to provide the kind of 

one-on-one counseling and coaching that professional leagues generally don’t. 

Previously, he’d been manager of player development for the National Football 

League and had founded, with fellow alumnus Tom Kowalski (CMN ’98), its 

continuing education program to help players with degree completion and 

preparation for graduate school. 

Athlife contracts with many professional and collegiate sports organizations, 

including the NFL Players Association, the NBA Retired Players Association, 

the Major League Soccer Players Union and the Atlanta Falcons. The 

organization also has contracted with more than 40 college and university 

athletics departments since its inception. 

Harris got his start with the National Consortium of Academics and Sports, 

an organization to help student-athletes with the “student” part, after earning 

his bachelor’s at DePaul. The job was based at DePaul, where he also earned 

a master’s degree, writing his thesis on how athletes make transitions to 

non-athletic life. 

Currently, Harris is moving Athlife’s pro activities into a not-for-profit foundation 

that promotes academic success for high school athletes. “Our focus has turned 

to working with kids and trying to fix the problems before they start,” he says. 

A native of upstate New York, Harris played basketball in high school and had 

heard of the Blue Demons and Coach Joey Meyer. He was looking for an urban 

campus with a mid-sized student body and the potential for him to learn to coach 

basketball. He phoned Meyer, who called him back personally and promised 

they’d find a spot for him in the basketball program if he chose DePaul. 

“That sold me,” says Harris, who made his way on to the team as a freshman 

walk-on and earned a scholarship as a senior. “It worked out beyond what I was 

hoping for. DePaul is a welcoming, family place.”

Kellie Willis (LAS MA ’10) 

Director 

Vincentian Service Corps 

Dennis Kass (LAW ’06) 

Teacher, Infinity Math, Science and Technology High School 

Founder, Chicago Law and Education Foundation 

College graduates who experience a gap year before they settle into a job 

sometimes find their lives take an unexpected turn. Kellie Willis says her year 

was “a total and utter surprise.” 

With her undergraduate degree from Marquette University and a plan to become 

a librarian in hand, Willis spent a year as a Gateway Vincentian Volunteer (GVV), 

serving people living in poverty in St. Louis, her hometown. She worked at a 

social service agency established by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de 

Paul and lived in community with other young volunteers. Today—11 years 

later—she mentors volunteers in the program that changed her life. 

Willis explains this course of events by her spiritual journey. Raised as a 

Presbyterian, she met a Jesuit priest at Marquette who influenced her spiritual 

life and connected her with Catholic social teaching. “I didn’t have experience in 

service as a child. I didn’t really feel that spark until college, until I really found a 

home in a faith community,” she says. 

During her time in GVV, Willis says she learned about “Vincentian charism and 

asking that Vincentian question: ‘What must be done?’ For me, that was kind of 

like, ‘Yes, that’s my question, and this is my identity, and I want to be doing this.’” 

After a year as a GVV, Willis chose DePaul University for her graduate work, 

finding the Vincentian spirit in the people she met on campus. She also found 

that her Master of Arts in liberal studies program was a good choice. “I love to 

learn. It was a perfect fit for me. … It really prepares you for intellectual thinking, 

new ways of thinking.” 

In the summer of 2008, Willis took a leave from her studies to teach English to 

sixth-graders in Ethiopia, an initiative of the Vincentian Lay Missionaries. She 

says this rich experience prompted her to participate in an international lay 

Vincentian missionary conference in Bogota, Columbia. She hopes to return to 

Ethiopia and to become more involved internationally. 

In her position as director of the Vincentian Service Corps, soon to be merged 

with GVV and renamed the Vincentian Mission Corps, she guides volunteers 

learning about the Vincentian mission. Willis hopes “they find some desire to 

serve people who are struggling in poverty or injustice” and learn to “treat 

everybody with dignity, to carry themselves like servants in whatever they do, and 

appreciate community as the basis for positive interaction and positive change.” 

While earning a DePaul law degree—he already had a master’s in education 

from the University of Michigan—Dennis Kass planned to open a free legal clinic 

at the school where he would eventually teach. When he started teaching at 

Infinity Math, Science and Technology High School, he learned that needed to 

be sooner rather than later. 

“My first year here I had this impromptu clinic, which was kids running up to me 

in the hallway after class asking questions,” says Kass. “My second year here, 

we started a full legal clinic once a week after school.” His students helped him 

organize and advertise the clinic and served as translators. The following year, 

he incorporated his own non-profit legal services agency, Chicago Law and 

Education Foundation, and launched legal clinics at four other schools. Today, 

the foundation has nine clinics serving Chicago Public Schools students and 

their families. Kass covers some of the clinics while still teaching full time, and 

the rest are operated by a handful of dedicated volunteer attorneys. 

“I really love teaching and running my clinic,” Kass says. “It’s a unique and 

innovative way to address the legal needs of lots of low-income families.” 

Kass says the biggest help in starting the clinic and foundation was working in 

DePaul’s Community Development Law Clinic. “It was practical legal experience 

that allowed me to make this project happen.” 

Kass’ primary work is to connect his clients with legal resources they may not 

know about. “Most low-income families don’t know they have a legal problem. 

When they do have a legal problem, they don’t know where to go.” 

To that end, the foundation has partnerships with a number of organizations— 

including DePaul’s Center for Public Interest Law, First Defense Legal Aid, 

National Immigrant Justice Center and Chicago Coalition for the Homeless— 

that can take their cases or provide them with assistance. 

The foundation also teaches students about the law. Under Kass’ guidance, 

students work on issues that concern them, such as the DREAM Act and 

domestic violence. 

Two of their research projects have been accepted for presentation at the 

American Sociological Association annual meeting. Last year, students 

presented a paper on racial discrimination in the rental housing market on 

Craigslist. This year, they will present their immigration rights study. “That’s with 

two 15-year-old students. They will be the only high schoolers there presenting 

with professors and researchers,” Kass says. 

f e a t u r e 

17

Megan Etlinger (CDM MS ’09) 

Associate Producer 

WYCC-TV 

Samuel Delgado (BUS ’03) 

Senior Finance Manager 

Abbott Laboratories 

When Megan Etlinger first started college, she aspired to be a dentist. But 

learning about cinema and the power of media led her down a new path. “You 

can really affect people in different ways, open people’s eyes to things, and 

that’s what drew me in,” she says. 

She gained her first production experience at the University of Illinois at 

Chicago’s campus housing television station. “I had this awesome mentor who 

was really good at showing us how to take a project from beginning to end and 

make it a TV show,” says Etlinger, who won a Bronze Telly Award for one of the 

shows she produced as a student. She then entered DePaul’s digital cinema 

graduate program and started at PBS affiliate WYCC-TV (Channel 20) after 

completing her first year. 

Etlinger says she enjoys working at the public television station because of the 

opportunities she has to tell stories and encourage community involvement and 

because of the station’s focus on diversity. In addition to weekly shows that air 

on the station, Etlinger works on special forums that focus on community topics 

and issues, like Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Facebook town hall meetings and a 

forum with talk show host and author Tavis Smiley. She was one of the 

producers of “Chicago Sinfonietta: Sounds of Diversity,” the Emmy Awardwinning 

documentary about the life and contributions of maestro Paul Freeman, 

Chicago Sinfonietta founder and its retired music director. 

“Getting to tell stories that people can learn and grow from is motivating,” she 

says. “PBS is beneficial to communities, and I’m glad I’m there helping to create 

programming like this.” 

Since joining WYCC, Etlinger created and now coordinates the station’s 

internship, production assistant and shadow programs for students interested in 

pursuing a career in television. “It’s cool to have students who are excited to be 

a part of something like this and watch them grow and gain experience,” she 

says. “I was there a few years ago, so it’s nice to be there for them.” 

Etlinger soaks up all the knowledge she can—from projects she works on, from 

mentors and co-workers, and even from the experiences of her older brother, a 

film director in California—and says she’s been able to take advantage of all 

these opportunities with her family’s support. “Family is a key element of my 

success. My parents have been my support, and I’m just lucky to have such a 

wonderful network of friends and family.” 

People skills, technical expertise, flexibility—Sammy Delgado has it all. No wonder 

his career trajectory goes straight up. 

After graduating from the DePaul Strobel Scholars accounting honors program, 

he joined Abbott as a financial analyst and progressed rapidly through its 

financial professional development program, working in various locations. The 

six following years included more moves and a few promotions. Delgado and his 

wife, Fabiola, also in finance at Abbott, moved to Wiesbaden, Germany, for two 

and a half years. There, Delgado managed financial planning for Abbott’s Middle 

East and Africa region. 

Along with his financial and technical expertise, Delgado’s people skills contribute 

to his success in working cross-functionally with marketing and sales, research 

and development, manufacturing and supply chain and other groups—which is 

why he says he thrives in a large company such as Abbott. 

“As much as I’m a technical accounting guy, I’m a very social person as well, 

so I can take my technical accounting skills and apply them in a business 

environment beyond just debits and credits and financial statements. It was easy 

to come here and know that there was going to be room for growth.” 

Delgado says that there were “lots of venues to work on those skills” at DePaul. 

As a member of the first DePaul Midwest Association of Hispanic Accountants 

(MAHA) case competition team, which won first place nationally, he gained 

“great experience in terms of taking complex business topics and presenting 

them to partners and other senior managers from companies at a national level.” 

Some of his classes “were very strategic management-based,” he says. 

Today, as a senior finance manager for Abbott in Lake Forest, Ill., Delgado 

shares his time and expertise. He helps coach MAHA students for case 

competitions, mentors young accounting professionals and supports his 

profession. As a former board member of the Association of Latino Professionals 

in Finance and Accounting, he says, “Being involved in various organizations, 

especially as a board member, you get to develop yourself to a certain extent, 

but really, a big part of it is serving the rest of the members.” 

Delgado grew up in a family who served their community through the church. He 

connected with the Vincentian mission of service at DePaul, and those values 

inform his hopes for the future. 

“My goal is to continue in the organization and to lead a broader piece of it. I’d 

like to stay involved in global decisions. I want to learn new things so I can pass 

that knowledge and those experiences on to those who come after me,” he says.

SUCCESS 

STORIES 

from 

ALUMNI 

UNDER 40 

Jon Irabagon (MUS ’02) 

Saxophonist 

Brooke Anderson (CMN MA ’09) 

Press Secretary for 

Ill. Gov. Patrick Quinn 

Saxophonist Jon Irabagon gets around: touring with Michael Bublé, leading or 

co-leading half a dozen bands of different configurations, playing as a side man 

with half a dozen others, recording CDs, and connecting with new jazz 

communities when he’s booked for tours in Europe. (A current favorite is Bergen, 

Norway.) He’s won a slew of competitions and awards, including the 2008 

Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition and the 2011 DownBeat 

International Critics’ Poll Alto Saxophone Rising Star Award. He also was 

nominated by the Jazz Journalists Association in both the Up and Coming Artist 

and Tenor Saxophonist of the Year categories for its 2011 Jazz Awards. 

Though Irabagon currently lives in New York, it was in Chicago that he first 

developed his jazz chops. From suburban Gurnee, he took up alto saxophone in 

fourth grade and piano shortly thereafter, but didn’t consider a career in music 

until high school. Bob Lark, DePaul’s director of jazz studies, gave clinics at 

Irabagon’s high school and drew him to the School of Music. He majored not in 

music performance, but in music business with a minor in journalism. 

“I figured I wouldn’t be in school forever, and I needed to learn as much as I 

could,” he says, adding that the business training has been invaluable in helping 

him manage his career. He used the city’s jazz scene to hone his skills, with a 

regular Sunday night gig at Andy’s and appearances at many other venues, 

including the legendary Jazz Showcase. 

“Chicago was such a big city with so many different venues and styles,” 

Irabagon says. “It was a chance to immerse myself.” 

Irabagon moved to New York in 2001 to study with saxophonist and jazz 

educator Dick Oatts, who was then teaching at the Manhattan School of Music. 

They met when Oatts was a guest artist at DePaul. New York was the next step 

in creating a serious music career. Irabagon earned a master’s degree in jazz 

performance and then went on to the Juilliard School for two fully subsidized 

years in its highly selective artist diploma program. 

Irabagon is thankful for his undergraduate years in Chicago. “If I had moved 

here right out of high school, I would be competing against the top guys,” he 

says. “Five years in Chicago really helped me get my feet wet and get used to 

playing gigs at that high level.” 

Brooke Anderson occupies one of the hottest seats in Illinois as press secretary 

to Gov. Patrick Quinn, the outspoken leader of a state facing financial crises on 

every front. She bounces between Chicago and Springfield, tours the state and 

even goes abroad occasionally. Days off are rare, and tough questions from the 

press are almost constant. But she wouldn’t have it otherwise. 

“Working for Quinn is the best opportunity of my life,” says Anderson, a selfconfessed 

political junkie. “The challenges are so dire and threaten every area 

of government. I wouldn’t take this position for just any elected official. Quinn is 

committed to giving working people a voice.” 

Quinn is battling to solve a pension crisis caused by decades of fiscal 

mismanagement and to contain the burgeoning costs of Medicaid without gutting 

health care for the poor. The state is facing what Anderson calls a “do or die 

moment,” and it’s her job to get Quinn’s message out, even when it won’t please 

everyone—or anyone. 

Anderson credits DePaul with providing the fuel to help her passion for politics 

catch fire into a career. A Florida native, she moved to Chicago in 2007 after an 

hourlong phone conversation with Professor Bruce Evensen convinced her that 

DePaul was the place to pursue graduate study in journalism. She’d been 

working at a public relations firm in Florida for health- and lifestyle-related 

accounts, but her heart was with politics. She was attracted by the school’s 

commitment to ethics and sense of mission, as well as its top-notch faculty and 

connections in local media. Evensen, in particular, taught her how to evaluate 

whether news stories were fair—a skill that’s proving indispensable in her 

current job. Instructor Mike Conklin, a former Chicago Tribune reporter, 

introduced her to Serafin and Associates, a public affairs communications firm 

that employed her while she was in school. 

“I was so engaged in every class I took at DePaul,” she says. “It was just really, 

really fun.” 

Anderson doesn’t know where her career will go from here, but for now, it 

doesn’t matter. “I am so focused on getting through each day, and the hours fly 

by,” she says. “I go to bed exhausted every night. It’s really challenging, but the 

governor is leading us in the right direction. I’d rather be involved when times 

are tough and be part of the upward surge.” 

f e a t u r e 

19

The Rise and Fall of 

DePaul 

Football 

Hall of Fame Coaching 

College Football Hall of Fame Coach Eddy 

Anderson compiled a 21-22-3 record at DePaul 

before leaving for the College of the Holy Cross, 

where he had a record of 47-7-4 from 1933 to 

1938, including undefeated seasons in 1935 

and 1937. 

by Ryan Johnson and Ryan Leahy 

Photos courtesy of DePaul University Archives 

The “Red and Blue,” as they were known, played intercollegiate ball 

from 1898 to 1938. Most home games were played at the DePaul 

Athletic Field on the Lincoln Park Campus, but big matches were 

played at Wrigley Field. Here are some of the team’s historic moments. 

1898 

1900 1929 1931 

A Crowd of 50,000 

An Early Team 

When St. Vincent’s College, soon to become DePaul University, was 

formed in 1898, it fielded a football team. The team of 1900 played when 

the school was still an all-male institution. 

Some 50,000 fans packed Soldier Field 

to watch DePaul University play Loyola 

University Chicago for the annual Battle 

of the Ole’ Brown Barrel at the 1929 

homecoming game. Loyola closed down 

its football program in 1929, leaving 

DePaul and the University of Chicago 

as the only major teams in the city.

Go Harrington! 

Gerald Harrington was a standout in the early 

1930s. The 1932 DePaulian yearbook wrote: 

“Harrington is a man who is hard to stop. His 

form might be brought to the turf, but his spirit 

is never stopped. He is a good ball-carrier and 

also a smart one. A ninety-yard run back of a 

kickoff for a touchdown proved his adeptness 

during the past season. Two years ago, when 

the tide was against De Paul in one of its big 

battles at Soldier Field, it was Red Harrington 

who carried on most valiantly.” 

DePaul Fans Dwindle 

Each game averaged tens of thousands of attendees 

from 1929 to 1931. During the final four seasons, DePaul 

averaged less than 30 percent of its 5,000 students at any 

one game despite several successful seasons. 

1932 1935 

1938 

Last Squad, Few Fans 

In its final season in 1938, the DePaul football team went 2-7 and had the worst student 

attendance of any year to date. Fewer than 1,000 fans attended the homecoming game. 

Final Score: 0 

On Dec. 13, 1938, DePaul 

announced that it would no longer 

have a football program. A large 

article on the front page of the 

Chicago Tribune sports section 

chalked the cancellation up to 

student apathy and financial loss 

by the university.

tidbits 

Join the Celebration at 

Reunion Weekend 2012 

Mark your calendars and start planning your return to campus 

because Reunion Weekend 2012 is just around the corner. Get 

ready for a full schedule of activities devoted to commemorating 

your time at DePaul, reconnecting with old friends and 

remembering everything you love about your alma mater. 

This year, Reunion Weekend takes place Oct. 12 to 14. All 

DePaul alumni are invited to attend, regardless of class year, 

so we hope you’ll join hundreds of graduates and friends for 

a trip down memory lane. Alumni celebrating a milestone 

anniversary—those who graduated in years ending in “2” or “7” 

—will enjoy special recognition throughout the weekend. 

On Friday, Oct. 12, the class of 1962 will be inducted into the 

Fifty Year Club at the Reunion Luncheon, which is always a 

memorable event. Friday evening, recent alumni are encouraged 

to mingle with fellow graduates from the past five years at the 

Young Alumni Reunion. 

On Saturday, Oct. 13, the Reunion Celebration will bring together 

DePaul alumni from near and far for a cocktail reception at the 

Palmer House Hilton. This festive occasion also will honor former 

Campus Recreation student employees, as well as alumni who 

were resident advisors during their time at DePaul. 

At the Hotel InterContinental, College of Law alumni who 

graduated in years ending in “2” or “7” will gather to celebrate 

their reunion anniversaries. 

On Sunday, Oct. 14, all reunion classes are invited to attend the 

Reunion Weekend Brunch at the Lincoln Park Student Center. 

To register, visit alumni.depaul.edu/reunion. 

Giving Update 

The following alumni gave their generous support to DePaul 

University from February 2012 through April 2012. 

$30,000,000 

n Richard H. Driehaus (BUS ’65, MBA ’70, DHL ’02), The Richard H. 

Driehaus College of Business 

$100,000 to $499,999 

n Robert A. Clifford (BUS ’73, JD ’76, LLD ’03) and Joan E. Clifford 

(EDU ’72), Robert A. Clifford Symposium on Tort Law and Social Policy 

n Malcolm D. Lambe (JD ’84) and Linda Usher, The Theatre School 

Performing Arts Capital Campaign 

$25,000 to $49,999 

n Frederick S. Cromer (MBA ’91) and Catherine Hanley Cromer, 

Fred Arditti Endowed Scholarship 

n The Honorable Richard D. Cudahy (LLD ’95), Public Interest Law 

Summer Fellows 

n Fran Ferrone (BUS ’53) and Don Ferrone, Henry and Fannie 

Ferrone - American Sightseeing Co. Endowed Scholarship in 

Hospitality Leadership 

n Anne Perillo Michuda (MM ’75) and the Michuda Family, 

School of Music Performing Arts Capital Campaign 

New Planned Gifts 

The following alumni indicated that they will support 

DePaul University through a planned or estate gift of 

$25,000 or more. 

n Kenneth C. Barr (LAW ’49) 

22 a l u m n i

Jumpstart Your Professional 

Development with an Alumni 

Career Conference Call 

“Enhancing Your 

Personal Brand.” 

“Job Searching 

While Employed.” 

“Over 40 and Hired.” 

These were just a few of the 

topics offered during recent 

Alumni Career Conference Calls. 

The monthly teleconference 

provides alumni with the 

opportunity to access valuable 

career advice and learn from 

experts in the DePaul 

community, including faculty, 

staff and fellow alumni. With 

DePaul graduates scattered throughout the country and internationally, 

these teleconferences make it easy for you to stay connected to DePaul 

and utilize your alma mater’s career services. 

The live Alumni Career Conference Calls take place on the second 

Wednesday of every month at noon CST. On Sept. 12, the next slate of 

conference calls gets under way with “Incorporating Alumni Career 

Resources in Your Job Search.” For more information, please visit 

alumni.depaul.edu/benefits/career/index.aspx. 

While the conference calls do not take place during July and August, 

there’s no need to put your career aspirations or uncertainties on the back 

burner. You can still explore “Strategies in Discovering Work/Life Balance” 

or acquire tips to “Negotiate the Salary You Want”—as well as access 

all other previous presentations—through the conference call archive. 

Audio recordings are available for free through iTunes U at 

itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/office-of-alumni-relations/id458081803. 

Whether you’re looking to change careers or seeking guidance on managing 

workplace challenges, your alma mater is a terrific resource for career 

assistance, professional development and networking advice. With the 

Alumni Career Conference Calls, you can reap these benefits anytime, from 

anywhere in the world. 

Legacy Gift: From Students for Students 

Thanks to the generosity of the graduating class, more than 

1,400 gifts were made to the Class of 2012 Legacy Gift, totaling 

more than $17,500 that will be used to assist in scholarship aid 

to deserving students and to various programs and departments 

across the university. 

This is only the second year of the Legacy Gift, an opportunity that 

allows students to give back directly to the students who follow 

them—via the general scholarship fund or a program or department 

of the student’s choosing. Last year, the Class of 2011 raised more 

than $11,000, with over 900 gifts made. The Legacy Gift is a unique 

opportunity to give back to the university, student to student. 

Through the Legacy Gift, students are able to ensure future 

generations of DePaul students have the same experiences they 

had while attending the university—many of which would not be 

possible without the generosity of donors. Students who donate 

are given a special cord to wear at commencement to show their 

support for future generations of students. 

For Alumni Only: Text $10 in 10 Seconds 

to Support DePaul Student Scholarships 

DePaul alumni can make an immediate impact in the lives of 

students—quickly and easily—with mobile giving. Simply refer 

to the back of this magazine for your personal code above your 

address, then text “DePaul (Your Code)” to 20222 to make your gift 

of $10.* There are no lengthy forms or credit card information to fill 

out to make a small donation that makes a big difference. 

Your gift supports the Many Dreams, One Mission Campaign and 

helps the university continue to provide an excellent education to 

all talented students who seek it, regardless of their economic 

circumstances. Take 10 seconds to send a text today. 

*Replace (Your Code) with the code number located on the back of 

this magazine; reply “YES” to confirmation text to finalize donation. 

Your gift of $10 will appear on your mobile phone bill. Standard text 

messaging rates may apply. 

a l u m n i 

23

class notes 

Log in to alumni.depaul.edu to read additional class 

notes and to discover the many ways to connect 

with other alumni and the DePaul community. 

’50s 

Edward Buron (LAS ’57) became a 

member of the advisory board for the 

Benedictine University Center for Lifelong 

Learning. The center is part of the 

university’s Moser College of Adult and 

Professional Studies in Naperville, Ill. 

’60s 

Malcolm O’Neill (CSH ’62) received the 

2012 Ronald Reagan Missile Defense 

Award for his outstanding support and 

leadership of the United States’ ballistic 

missile defense program. A veteran of 34 

years of active military service, he retired 

as a lieutenant general in the U.S. Army 

following a highly decorated career. Most 

recently, he was assistant secretary of the 

Army for acquisition, logistics and 

technology. 

’70s 

Reunion Years: 

1962 and 1967 


1972 and 1977 

Mark J. Horne (JD ’73), a partner at 

Quarles & Brady LLP, was named a 2012 

BTI Client Service All-Star in Real Estate 

by The BTI Consulting Group Inc. 

Laura A. Ross-White (THE ’76) is a 

founding member of the Asylum Theatre 

Company and is the assistant director of 

its current production, “The Tempest.” 

The production was chosen by the Royal 

Shakespeare Company to participate in the 

Open Stages project, which recognizes 

new adaptations of Shakespeare’s work. 

Ross-White also is the manager of the 

Gallery Shop at Gallery North and is the 

artistic director of The Oberon Foundation. 

She is married to artist Christian White. 

Cathy S. Hampton (LAS ’77, MA ’81) 

was admitted to the Ph.D. program in 

systematic and philosophical theology at 

the Graduate Theological Union and the 

University of California, Berkeley, for the 

2012-2013 academic year. She recently 

completed a master’s degree in spirituality 

at Loyola University Chicago. 

Stephen W. Micatka (BUS ’77, MBA 

’85) has decided to retire and pursue his 

next career, after spending 27 years in 

financial management at Illinois Tool Works 

Inc. He is not yet clear on his future plans, 

but they certainly will involve relaxing a 

bit, cheering on our Blue Demons and 

traveling with his wife, Lenore Micatka 

(BUS ’77, MBA ’85), who retired from 

Morton Salt two years ago. 

William S. Bike 

(LAS ’79) recently 

published the third 

edition of his political 

science book, 

“Winning Political 

Campaigns,” this time 

as an e-book. He is a 

journalist, public 

relations professional and political pundit. 

’80s 


1982 and 1987 

James P. McKay Jr. (CMN ’80), an 

assistant state’s attorney in Illinois, was the 

prosecutor in the Chicago trial on the killing 

of the family of actress Jennifer Hudson. 

He heads the complex litigations task force 

in the Cook County office and has 

prosecuted many high-profile cases. 

William W. Crossett (JD ’81) was 

inducted as a fellow of The College of 

Workers Compensation Lawyers. He is a 

founder and vice president of the Injured 

Workers Bar Association of New York. 

Richard J. Gorny (BUS ’81, MBA ’89) 

formed his own company in 2011 and is 

now president and CEO of Value Creation: 

Management and Financial Consulting 

LLC. Previously, he was director of risk 

management at Follett Higher Education 

from 2005 through 2010. 

Jamie T. O’Reilly (MUS ’81) created and 

performed a spring showcase, “Songs of a 

Catholic Childhood,” with singer Michael 

Smith in April. The shows were matched 

with a special prix-fixe menu at Chief 

O’Neill’s Pub and Restaurant in Chicago. 

Robert E. Douglas (JD ’82) was appointed 

an associate judge of the 18th Judicial 

Circuit. He is currently affiliated with the 

DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office 

in Wheaton, Ill. 

Robert W. Smyth Jr. (JD ’82) was named 

to the Illinois Super Lawyers list as one of 

the top attorneys in the state for 2012, a 

recognition he has received in consecutive 

years since 2004. He practices at Donohue 

Brown Matheson & Smyth LLC defending 

catastrophic injury and high exposure cases. 

Steven A. Betts (JD ’83) joined the 

Arizona State University Foundation for a 

New American University as its senior vice 

president and managing director of assets. 

He is former president and CEO of SunCor 

Development Company. 

Stephan D. Blandin (LAS ’83, JD ’86) 

received a Trial Lawyer Excellence Award 

from Law Bulletin Publishing Company for 

the highest reported verdict in an Illinois 

chiropractic malpractice case for 2011. 

He is a founding principal and partner in 

the Chicago law firm of Romanucci & 

Blandin LLC. 

Rose M. Doherty 

(BUS ’83) was 

appointed to the 

Illinois CPA Society 

board of directors. She 

is a partner at Legacy 

Professionals LLP. 

David J. Kalainoff (MBA ’83) was 

promoted to president and chief 

underwriting officer of U.S. reinsurance 

at Alterra Capital Holdings Ltd. He has 

been with the company since 2002 and 

previously worked with its Bermuda division. 

John H. Wallace (MUS ’83) conducted 

the premiere of his new work, “Five 

Miniatures,” in February in Boston. The 

work, for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, 

violin, viola, cello and double bass, was 

commissioned by Theodore Antoniou and 

Boston University’s contemporary music 

ensemble. He is the director of undergraduate 

studies in the School of Music at 

the Boston University College of Fine Arts. 

Leslie Schermer (JD ’85, MED ’99) 

was appointed unanimously as regional 

superintendent of schools in McHenry 

County. Previously, she served as assistant 

principal at LaSalle Language Academy 

in Chicago. 

Bradford J. White (JD ’85) was appointed 

associate director at the Alphawood 

Foundation Chicago. He has more than 

25 years of professional and volunteer 

experience in community and economic 

development, affordable housing, 

preservation, public policy and advocacy. 

G. Allen Barbee (MM ’86) was appointed 

the director of music ministries at Chamblee 

First United Methodist Church in Chamblee, 

Ga., and remains director of bands at St. 

Martin’s Episcopal School in Atlanta as well 

as music director and conductor of 

Peachtree Symphonic Winds. 

Steven C. Rubinow (CDM MS ’86) is 

chief information officer for FX Alliance 

Inc., an electronic foreign exchange 

platform. For the past six years, he was 

executive vice president and CIO of NYSE 

Euronext Inc. 

Jeffrey J. Kroll (BUS ’87, JD ’90), 

principal of the Law Offices of Jeffrey J. 

Kroll, was selected as a Fellow of the 

Litigation Counsel of America. The 

invitation-only trial lawyer honorary society 

includes less than one-half of one percent 

of American lawyers. Kroll uses his 21 

years of experience representing injured 

victims and their families at his Chicagobased 

personal injury law firm. 

Kwame Raoul 

(LAS ’87), an Illinois 

state senator, joined 

the national law firm 

of Quarles & Brady 

LLP. He will work in 

the Chicago office as 

a partner in the labor 

and employment 

group. 

Allison L. Wood 

(JD ’87), after 

serving the Illinois 

Attorney Registration 

and Disciplinary 

Commission as 

hearing board chair 

and litigation counsel, 

started her own firm, 

Legal Ethics Consulting P.C. The firm 

provides preventive ethics counseling, 

research for ethics inquiries, disciplinary 

and malpractice defense, and expert 

evaluations. 

24 a l u m n i

Richard H. Gellersted (JD ’88), a 

volunteer attorney for Lake Bluff, Ill.-based 

BENNU Legal Services, recently served 

as a judge in the opening round of the 

American Mock Trial Association 

competition. BENNU Legal Services is a 

nonprofit legal aid agency that provides 

assistance to immigrants transitioning into 

the United States and to entrepreneurial 

small businesses. 

’90s 


1992 and 1997 

William Williams (JD ’90) was appointed 

companywide chief financial officer of 

H. D. Smith, one of the nation’s largest 

pharmaceutical wholesalers. Previously, 

he was the company’s interim CFO. 

Stephen T. Powell (MM ’91, MUS ’93) 

appeared in the concert performance of 

Franz Schmidt’s opera “Notre Dame” by 

the American Symphony Orchestra, 

conducted by Leon Botstein. According to 

a New York Times review, “The rich-voiced 

baritone Stephen Powell sang with power 

and authority.” 

Theodore Aldrich (LAS ’92), president 

and chief operating officer of Delaware 

Place Bank in Chicago, was elected to 

the Greater North Michigan Avenue 

Association’s board of directors. He will 

serve a two-year term ending in 2014. He 

also serves on the dean’s advisory board 

for DePaul’s College of Liberal Arts and 

Social Sciences. 

Peter T. Chantel (BUS ’92) is chief 

financial officer at SugarSync, a cloudbased 

data service with headquarters in 

San Mateo, Calif. 

Elizabeth G. Vaughan (SNL ’92) joined 

Trustmark Voluntary Benefit Solutions as 

regional sales director for the company’s 

Midwest region. She has more than 20 

years of experience with the past 10 years 

in voluntary and worksite benefits. 

Oto R. Carrillo (MUS ’93) was appointed 

to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra horn 

section in 2000. He has been teaching 

horn at DePaul University since 2003. 

Chiara L. Mangiameli (THE ’94) was in 

the cast of “Rick Bayless in Cascabel” at 

the Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago 

through April. 

Tara Parks (THE ’94) had a travel feature 

about New York City in the November 2011 

issue of The Market, a magazine appearing 

in newsstands, first-class cabins and hotels 

across Europe. She still practices singing 

and teaches English to German executives. 

Chris S. Feigum (MUS ’95) performed 

as Danilo in the Kentucky Opera production 

of “Merry Widow” and performed Brahms’ 

“Requiem” with the Kansas City Symphony. 

Tanya J. Stanish (JD ’95), a Chicago 

divorce and family law attorney, was 

promoted to senior partner with the 

nation’s largest matrimonial law firm, 

Schiller DuCanto & Fleck LLP. She joined 

the firm in 2008 as a partner and has more 

than 16 years of experience in family law. 

Alexsandra Sukhoy (CMN ’95) is an 

adjunct professor at the Monte Ahuja 

College of Business at Cleveland State 

University. Additionally, she teaches film 

classes at the Cuyahoga Community 

College. Sukhov continues her career 

coaching and writing with Creative 

Cadence LLC. 

Margaret A. Larrea (JD ’96), a 

commander in the U.S. Navy’s Judge 

Advocate General’s Corps, recently 

returned from a nine-month deployment to 

Baghdad, Iraq, where she served as the 

chief of the Rule of Law Division. She is 

now the executive officer for Naval Legal 

Service Office Mid-Atlantic in Norfolk, Va. 

Paul D. McGrady Jr. (JD ’96) joined 

Winston & Strawn LLP in Chicago as a 

partner in the firm’s advertising, marketing 

and entertainment law practice. He also 

teaches cyberlaw as an adjunct professor 

of law at DePaul’s College of Law. 

Jeremy W. Robinson (JD ’96) is the 

senior legal advisor/instructor for the U.S. 

Army Command and General Staff College 

at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. 

Sarah R. Schaus (MBA ’96) was 

appointed assistant vice president of 

treasury of Allianz Life Insurance Company 

of North America. She joined Allianz Life in 

February 2009 as director of treasury and 

assistant treasurer. 

Vincent M. Auricchio (JD ’97), of the 

Auricchio Law Offices, was selected as a 

National Trial Lawyers Top 40 under 40 in 

personal injury litigation. 

Michael D. Muhney (THE ’97) was 

featured in a high-fashion spread in 

January in Watch magazine. He plays 

Adam Wilson in CBS’ “The Young and the 

Restless” and was in the movie “The 

Portal” with Michael Madsen. He 

campaigned with NATAS and ATAS for 

major reform for the Daytime Emmys. 

Jeffrey A. Hesser (JD ’98) and Ehren V. 

Bilshausen (BUS ’99) were both named 

partner at Cassiday Schade LLP in the 

firm’s Chicago office. Hesser concentrates 

on general negligence and medical 

malpractice defense, while Bilshausen 

concentrates on construction and 

transportation-related litigation. 

Micah E. Marcus (JD ’99), a partner at 

Kirkland & Ellis LLP, was named an Illinois 

Super Lawyers Rising Star for 2012. 

Ray J. Melton (JD ’99) was named partner 

at the law firm of SmithAmundsen LLC. He 

works in the firm’s Rockford, Ill., office in 

civil litigation, personal injury defense, 

product liability defense, commercial 

litigation and insurance coverage. 

Brent R. Walters (LAS MS ’99) was 

promoted to vice president of STV, a 

leading engineering, architectural and 

construction management firm. He 

previously was associate general counsel, 

having joined the firm in 2008 in its 

New York City office. 

’00s 


2002 and 2007 

Kevin W. Douglas (THE ’00) was in the 

cast of “Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting” at 

Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre through 

February. 

Jisha V. Dymond 

(BUS ’00) was 

named counsel at 

Genova, Burns & 

Giantomasi. She is a 

member of the 

corporate political 

activity law and 

appellate law practice 

groups and is based in the firm’s New York 

City office. 

Colby A. Kingsbury 

(JD ’00), a partner at 

Faegre Baker Daniels 

LLP, received the 2011 

Charles L. Whistler 

Award. The award 

honors a lawyer or 

consultant at Faegre 

Baker Daniels who 

has excelled in pro bono service or has 

made outstanding contributions to the firm’s 

pro bono program. 

David J. Wyrick (MBA ’00) is business 

unit director of the marine and industrial 

group for Charles Industries Ltd. His prior 

experience includes product development 

and design, marketing, manufacturing and 

business strategies focused on stored 

energy solutions. 

Patrick A. Godon (MUS ’01, MM ’03) 

is the artistic director of International 

Chamber Artists. He was also the featured 

soloist with the Lake Shore Symphony 

Orchestra for Tchaikovsky’s Piano 

Concerto No. 1 in November 2011. 

Alana S. Arenas (THE ’02) was in 

the cast of “The March” at Steppenwolf 

Theatre, where she is an ensemble 

member. She also received a 2012 Alumni 

Award for Excellence in the Arts from 

The Theatre School. 

Jason P. Eckerly (JD ’02) was named 

shareholder at Segal McCambridge Singer 

& Mahoney. He is a litigator in the firm’s 

Chicago office who focuses on the defense 

of toxic tort, asbestos and general liability 

litigation. 

Hisham A. Alrayes (MBA ’03) is acting 

CEO for Gulf Finance House, a Bahrainbased 

Islamic investment bank. He 

previously was chief investment officer at 

the corporation, where he has worked 

since 2007. 

David J. Corchin’s (MUS ’03) children’s 

book, “Sam and the Jungle Band,” was 

published. It is the latest in a series of 

children’s books that includes “Band 

Nerds—Poetry from the 13th Chair 

Trombone Player.” 

Patrick J. Regan (MBA ’03) is the global 

brewing and spirits lead with General 

Electric, where he has worked for more 

than 12 years. He helped create GE’s 

“power and beer” commercial with 

Budweiser, which aired during the 2012 

Super Bowl. 

a l u m n i 

25

class notes 

Kelly C. Elmore (JD ’04) joined Kovitz 

Shifrin Nesbit, a Chicago-area law firm, as 

a principal in its community association law 

practice group. Previously, she was a 

partner at Penland & Hartwell. 

Ryan W. Kastner 

(MBA ’04) joined 

Heartland Bank and 

Trust Company as 

vice president in asset 

management for 

commercial real 

estate. He will 

serve the Chicago 

metropolitan and suburban market from the 

company’s Western Springs, Ill., office. 

Mark M. Lezerkiewicz (MBA ’04) was 

promoted to manager of the Enterprise 

Security Program for the Federal Reserve. 

Kristine Meek 

(MBA ’04) was 

appointed assistant 

director of the 

Harmon-Meek Gallery 

in Naples, Fla. She is 

the eldest daughter of 

owners William and 

Barbara Meek. 

Curt Owens (THE ’04) is the executive 

assistant to the CEO and a producing 

associate at NETworks Presentations 

working on national tours, including 

“Billy Elliot,” “Les Miserables,” “La Cage 

Aux Folles,” “Shrek the Musical” and 

“War Horse.” 

Christina Toto Lynch (JD ’04) was 

named an Illinois Super Lawyers Rising 

Star in Business Litigation for 2012. 

Janai E. Brugger-Orman (MUS ’05) is 

a second-year artist with the Los Angeles 

Opera’s Domingo-Thornton Young Artist 

Program. Last season, she appeared as 

Barbarina in “Le Nozze di Figaro” and the 

Page in “Rigoletto.” She recently received 

her master’s degree from the University of 

Michigan. 

Nicole M. Homb, D.O., (LAS ’05) was 

selected to be an intern in the Department 

of Health Statistics and Informatics with the 

World Health Organization headquarters in 

Geneva, Switzerland. Currently, Homb is a 

practicing doctor of chiropractic and a clinical 

research fellow in the Master of Science in 

clinical research program at Palmer College 

of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. 

Brennan Parks (MFA ’05) produced and 

directed a short film, “15:2,” which was 

screened at 12 international film festivals 

and won Best Horror Comedy Short at the 

Fear Fete Horror Film Festival in Baton 

Rouge, La. Parks has worked in postproduction 

on “Hung,” “Big Love,” “In 

Treatment,” “The Vampire Diaries” and 

“Girls.” 

Mathew T. Siporin (JD ’05) was named 

as a Rising Star among Illinois litigators by 

Super Lawyers Magazine. 

Michelle J. Spellerberg (MBA ’05) 

became chief marketing officer of Sikich LLP 

in November 2011. Sikich, headquartered in 

Naperville, Ill., is a top accounting, advisory, 

technology and managed services firm for 

midmarket organizations. Spellerberg was 

formerly with CareerBuilder as the senior 

director of emerging media solutions. 

Laura B. Bacon (JD ’06) joined O’Hagan 

Spencer as a litigation associate in the 

firm’s Chicago office. She focuses on 

employment, professional liability and 

condominium association law. 

Phillip Brannon (THE ’06) was in 

the cast of “The March” at Steppenwolf 

Theatre. Also in the cast were Shannon 

R. Matesky (THE ’10), who played 

Pearl, and understudies Lucy T. Sandy 

(THE MFA ’10) and Derek N. Gaspar 

(THE MFA ’11). 

Szymon M. Gurda (CDM MS ’06, 

JD ’06) was named partner at Cherskov, 

Flaynik & Gurda LLC. The firm specializes 

in intellectual property issues for smalland 

medium-sized clients. 

Cecelia J. Hall (MUS ’06) appeared in 

Lyric Opera of Chicago productions of 

“Lucia di Lammermoor,” “Aida” and 

“Rinaldo” this past season. She made her 

Chicago Opera Theater debut in the title 

role of Handel’s “Teseo.” According to a 

Chicago Tribune review, “the gleamingvoiced 

mezzo-soprano Cecelia Hall, a 

rising star of Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center, 

is headed for an important career.” 

Sara M. Poorman (THE ’06) is the 

director of marketing for Curious Theatre 

Company in Denver. 

Jason N. Abrahams (MBA ’07) joined 

Club Colors, a global provider of promotional 

products and branded apparel, as marketing 

manager. He came to the company after 

serving as vice president of marketing at 

Elgin, Ill.-based National Gift Card. 

Jiyeon Choi (JD ’07) is staff attorney for 

Lake Bluff, Ill.-based BENNU Legal Services, 

a nonprofit legal aid agency that provides 

assistance to immigrants transitioning into 

the United States and to entrepreneurial 

small businesses. 

Timothy Frank (THE ’07) and Jessica 

Rosenberger (THE ’07) are in a short 

film, “Anatomy of Numbers,” which was 

shown at multiple international and 

independent film festivals in California. 

Amanda D. Powell (THE ’07) was in 

“Bachelorette” at Profiles Theatre. 

Michael R. Shoemaker (MBA ’07) is 

the chief compliance officer for Driehaus 

Capital Management LLC and Driehaus 

Mutual Funds in Chicago. 

Cortney S. Closey (JD ’08) is on the 

Illinois Rising Stars list as one of the top up 

and coming attorneys in the state. She 

concentrates her practice at Donohue 

Brown Mathewson & Smyth in product 

liability, professional negligence and 

commercial litigation defense. 

Leanne G. Medeiros (THE ’08) is the 

director of education and community 

outreach at Performance Workshop 

Theatre in Baltimore. 

Christina Nieves (THE ’08), Sean Parris 

(THE ’11) and Levenix Riddle (THE ’11) 

appeared in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” 

at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. 

Bryan Wilson (JD ’08) was named an 

Illinois Super Lawyers Rising Star for 2012. 

Kimberly Dawson (SNL ’09, MA ’11) is 

a volunteer for the University of Chicago at 

the school’s Hyde Park Campus. 

Keira A. Fromm (MFA ’09) directed 

“Enfrascada” at the 16th Street Theatre 

in Berwyn, Ill. 

Rebecca L. Robinson (MUS ’09), a 

mezzo-soprano, won first place in the 

North Shore Chorale Society Competition 

for young artists. 

Andrew J. Thompson (MUS ’09) was 

named the contrabassoon for the St. Louis 

Symphony Youth Orchestra. A St. Louis 

native, he was a member of the Civic 

Orchestra of Chicago and its outreachoriented 

MusiCorps Woodwind Quintet. He 

has performed with the Chicago Symphony 

Orchestra and other orchestras in Chicago 

and Boston. 

Ian M. Tobin (LAS ’09) will be a fellow in 

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office for 

summer 2012. He will conduct research for 

the mayor’s senior staff on several policies 

related to community stabilization. 

’10s 

Wilma-Marie Cisco (THE ’10) directed 

“Baseball Music: The Sweetest Sound” 

with MPAACT at the Greenhouse Theater 

Center last spring. Cisco is MPAACT’s 

director of audience development, the 

resident stage manager and a company 

member. 

Alexander W. Konetzki (JD ’10) became 

an associate in the FEC compliance and 

vetting department of President Barack 

Obama’s re-election campaign. 

Lindsay B. Metzger (MUS ’10) won third 

place in the Musicians Club of Women 

Scholarship Competition in March, winning 

a $7,500 scholarship, membership to the 

club and a recital in the Cultural Center. 

She also performed as Daphne in the 

Haymarket Opera Company’s production 

of Charpentier’s “La Descente d’Orphee 

aux Enfers.” 

Ginny Cascio (JD ’11) joined McMillan 

Metro P.C. in Rockville, Md., and assists 

clients with business, employment, 

intellectual property and artist’s rights 

issues. 

Noah M. Hayman (THE ’11) designed 

the lighting for “Jack’s Precious Moment” 

at Will Act For Food Theatre last winter. 

Azar Kazemi (MFA ’11) directed the 

show. 

Patricia L. Lavery (MFA ’11) was in 

the cast of “Alexander and the Terrible, 

Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” at 

Emerald City Children’s Theatre. 

26 a l u m n i

Chris A. Rickett (MFA ’11) was in the 

cast of “The Strange and Terrible True Tale 

of Pinocchio (the wooden boy) as told by 

Frankenstein’s Monster the Wretched 

Creature” with the Neo-Futurists. 

Kristen M. Staky (THE ’11) is the 

in-house ventilator and the assistant head 

of special effects at Nigel’s Beauty Emporium 

in Los Angeles. 

Marriages & Engagements 

Gianfranco Berardi (CDM ’04) is 

engaged to Laura Riordan. They will marry 

in May 2012. 

Issa Alia (BUS ’09) is engaged to 

Natalie Balicki (BUS ’09). A fall 2012 

wedding and reception is planned in 

Lockport, Ill., and Chicago. 

Patrick Emling (CDM MS ’10) and 

Jennifer McCafferty (LAS MA ’11) will 

be married June 30, 2012, in Cincinnati at 

St. Ursula’s Chapel. 

Births & Adoptions 

Eric P. Seaborg 

(JD ’97) and his wife, 

Christina, are proud to 

announce the birth of 

daughters Alex and 

Sophia on April 3, 

2011. The twins were welcomed home by 

their big brother, Jake. 

Michelle M. Stopka 

(CMN ’99) and her 

husband, Michael, are 

proud to announce the 

birth of their son, 

Evan Nathaniel, 

welcomed with love 

on Jan. 27, 2012. Evan joined big brother 

Vance, 18 1/2 months. 

Dan P. Green 

(BUS ’01) and 

Melinda Green 

(CSH ’01) welcomed 

their daughter, Ella 

Inez, on March 10, 

2012. 

Kathleen A. Clair 

(BUS MS ’08) and 

her husband, Ron, 

happily announce the 

birth of their second 

son, Andrew James, 

who arrived on 

Feb. 22, 2012. Andrew 

was welcomed home 

by his big brother, Tyler. 

In Memoriam 

Lord, we commend to you the souls of 

our dearly departed. In your mercy and 

love, grant them eternal peace. 

Alumni 

Harold T. Berc (LAW ’37) 

Genevieve R. Mueller (LAS ’38) 

Jack F. Bussert (CSH ’47) 

Harvey W. Keller (LAW ’49) 

William H. Rhoden (CSH MS ’49) 

Andrew M. Sutton (BUS ’49) 

Dorothy Keenan (LAS ’50) 

C. Frederick Leydig (JD ’50) 

June C. Oda (MUS ’50) 

Francis E. Youssi (JD ’50) 

Delphine Fleming (MED ’51) 

Sister Annamarie Gierszewski 

(LAS ’52, MA ’58) 

Sister M. Johanna Didier (EDU MA ’53) 

Robert D. Edison (MBA ’53) 

Donna J. Johnson (LAS ’53) 

Frances M. Mazurek (CSH ’53, MS ’57) 

Leroy W. Mitchell (JD ’54) 

Ralph J. Vesecky Jr. (CSH MS ’54) 

Carrie L. Bowens (LAS ’55) 

Frank G. O’Connor (BUS ’57) 

Donald Ulias (LAS ’57) 

James J. Raftery (LAS ’58) 

Joseph F. Colligan (LAS MA ’59) 

Neal Farrell (BUS ’62) 

George F. Klepec (JD ’62) 

Janalee D. Lindley (LAS ’62) 

Carl J. Madda (JD ’62) 

August J. Prahlow (LAS MA ’63) 

John P. Dunne (JD ’64) 

Thomas J. Lowry (MUS ’64) 

Jeremiah S. Shannon (JD ’64) 

Thomas P. Cullen (LAS ’65) 

Walter J. Wadycki (BUS ’65) 

Patricia J. Drown (EDU ’66) 

David B. Jensen (LAW ’66) 

Wayne F. Kalina (BUS ’67) 

Thomas R. Pozatek (BUS ’69) 

Vijay S. Sampat (LAS MA ’69) 

Norine C. Lynch (MED ’72) 

William J. Hibbler (JD ’73) 

Lorin E. Levee (MUS ’73) 

Paul A. Sweas (BUS ’75) 

James A. Telford (MBA ’76) 

Emma W. Richardson (BUS ’77) 

Richard L. Sosnowski (BUS ’77) 

Gerald J. Brady Sr. (MBA ’78) 

Michael J. Ryan (MBA ’86) 

Rupert O. Brockmann (LLM ’91) 

Jon A. Shultz (MBA ’92, MED ’04) 

Sister Caroline Vasquez (MED ’93) 

Glenda M. Madison (SNL ’97) 

Lindsay K. Habinak (EDU ’00) 

Danielle M. Becker (LAS ’04) 

Stephen A. Smith (BUS ’04) 

Michella McMaster (LAS MS ’06) 

Brian J. Fanning (CDM MS ’08) 

Kenneth W. Leonchik (CDM MS ’08) 

Nikolai K. Mazeika (MBA ’10) 

Friends 

Rosemary S. Bannan 

Fred Breitbeil 

John P. Curtin 

Bill Granger 

Richard J. Houk 

Joe Marconi 

Virginia Rutherford 

Stephen Vagi 

Editor’s Note: Due to space limitations, this 

memorial list includes only those alumni and 

friends who our offices have confirmed have 

passed away since the previous issue was 

printed. 

Share your news with 

the DePaul community. 

We want to hear about your 

promotion, career move, wedding, 

birth announcement and other 

accomplishments and milestones. 

Please include your name (and 

maiden name if applicable), along 

with your email, mailing address, 

degree(s) and year(s) of graduation. 

Mail to: 

DePaul University 

Office of Alumni Relations 

ATTN: Class Notes 

1 E. Jackson Blvd. 

Chicago, IL 60604 

Email to: dpalumni@depaul.edu 

Fax to: 312.362.5112 

For online submissions visit: 

alumni.depaul.edu 

Class notes will be posted on 

the Alumni & Friends website and 

will be considered for inclusion in 

DePaul Magazine. 

DePaul reserves the right to edit class notes. 

a l u m n i 

27

alumni relations 

Event Calendar 

Visit alumni.depaul.edu/events or call 800.437.1898 for further information and to register. 

Fees and registration deadlines apply to some events. Registration for fall events will 

open in late summer. Check alumni.depaul.edu for more information. 

July 

July 18 

Goose Island Pregame Party and 

Chicago Cubs vs. Miami Marlins 

Chicago 

July 22 

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Chicago Cubs 

St. Louis 

July 25 

DePaul Picnic 

Naperville, Ill. 

August 

Aug. 1 

DePaul Picnic Alumni Welcome for 

Graduates and First-year Students 

Glenview, Ill. 

Aug. 3 

Pregame Party and Chicago White Sox 

vs. Los Angeles Angels 

Chicago 

Aug. 16 

Sunset Boat Cruise 

Chicago 

Aug. 23 

Alumni & Friends Summer Gathering 

Munster, Ind. 

September 

Sept. 5 

Washington Nationals vs. Chicago Cubs 

Washington, D.C. 

Sept. 6 

Young Alumni Kegged Cocktail Tasting 

Chicago 

Sept. 12 

Alumni Career Conference Call: 

Incorporating Alumni Career 

Resources in Your Job Search 

Teleconference 

Sept. 14 

Lunchtime Tour of the Modern Wing 

Chicago 

Sept. 19 

Private Performance by School of Music 

students 

Chicago 

Sept. 26 

Colorado Rockies vs. Chicago Cubs 

Denver 

October 

Oct. 12 

Alumni Career Conference Call: Advanced 

Social Media for Your Job Search 


Oct. 12 to 14 

Reunion Weekend 

Chicago 

Oct. 18 

DePaul Reception with the President 

Southern California 

Oct. 20 

Volunteer Outing 

Chicago 

Oct. 28 

House of Blues Gospel Brunch 

Chicago 

November 

Nov. 3 

Arizona Giving Thanks Volunteer Day 

Phoenix 

Nov. 3 

Annual Fall Tour 

Chicago 

Nov. 7 

DePaul Reception with the President 

Barrington, Ill. 

Nov. 13 

DePaul Art Museum Reception 

Chicago 

Nov. 14 

Alumni Career Conference Call: 

Informational Interviews 


Recent Alumni Events 

United States Capitol Building Tour 

Hosted by alumnus and United States Senate Sergeant-at- 

Arms Terrance Gainer (LAS MS ’76, JD ’80), approximately 

140 DePaul University alumni, staff and friends joined 

Interim Provost Patricia O’Donoghue in Washington, 

D.C., on April 26 for the exclusive opportunity to 

participate in a special reception at the U.S. Capitol 

building. Guests also were treated to private tours that 

showcased the art and history of the Capitol. 

Tea at The Drake Hotel 

DePaul 

alumni and 

friends 

participated 

in afternoon 

tea at the 

historic 

Drake Hotel 

in Chicago 

Alumni enjoy a springtime tea. 

on May 12. 

This event quickly sold out, drawing about 40 guests. 

Attendees were seated in a special DePaul section to enjoy 

traditional tea, sandwiches, sweets and live harp music in 

the hotel’s Palm Court. 

Vincentian Service Day 2012 Yields Great Success 

On May 5, 

approximately 

1,600 DePaul 

University 

students, alumni, 

faculty, staff 

and friends 

came together to 

celebrate Vincentian 

Service Day, an 

Hard at work in Chicago’s Wicker Park 

neighborhood. 

More alumni photos at flickr.com/depaulspirit. 

annual volunteer 

opportunity 

designed to foster the spirit of St. Vincent and to spread 

the university’s mission. In addition to the events in 

and around Chicago, volunteers participated in projects 

at regional Vincentian Service Day sites in Denver, 

New York, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., to log nearly 

4,800 hours of service. 

28 a l u m n i

Thank 

You, 

James M. and Catherine Denny, 

ON BEHALF OF DEPAUL’S FUTURE SCIENTISTS, 

THEATRE ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS 

The generosity and vision of Jim and Cate Denny have had a profound impact on Chicago’s 

leading cultural and educational institutions. At DePaul, their contributions are shaping academic 

excellence that spans science and the performing arts. Jim, a life trustee, serves as co-chair of the Many Dreams, One 

Mission Campaign Committee for Performing Arts. He served on the steering committee of the Campaign for Excellence 

in Science, which raised $20 million toward the construction of the Monsignor Andrew J. McGowan Science Building. 

The Dennys made very generous leadership gifts to the School of Music scholarships and the Campaign for Excellence 

in Science Capital Fund and have moved others to do the same. 

President of Two Rivers LLC, a family investment firm, Jim began his career as a lawyer and went on to serve as vice 

chairman of Sears, Roebuck & Co., executive vice president and chief financial officer of G.D. Searle and Co., and 

treasurer of Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., as well as on the boards of many other organizations. 

At the groundbreaking celebration for The Theatre School’s new home, Jim remarked that the performing arts “open our 

minds to new ideas and new ways of thinking, which is crucial to human development individually and culturally.” In 

that same spirit, DePaul is deeply grateful to the Dennys; their remarkable contributions will inspire students, faculty 

members and the community for generations to come. 

Learn how you can support DePaul University and its students by visiting campaign.depaul.edu.

Non-Profit Org. 

U.S. Postage 

PAID 

DePaul University 

1 East Jackson Boulevard 

Chicago, Illinois 60604 

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED 

Text $10 in 10 seconds to support 

DePaul student scholarships. 

See your mailing label for directions. 

“I’d rather be involved when times are tough 

and be part of the upward surge.” 

Brooke Anderson (CMN MA ’09) 

Press Secretary for 

Ill. Gov. Patrick Quinn

Reunion Years - DePaul University

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