Innovation - DePaul University

DEPAUL
magazine
W i n t e r 2 0 1 0
The
Innovation
Issue

Front cover
Beverly Trezek, assistant professor
in the School of Education, created a
teaching method that helps deaf and
hard-of-hearing elementary and high
school students dramatically increase
their reading skills. See p. 22.
6
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Carol Sadtler, Editor
Christian Anderson, Contributing Writer
Paul Baker, Contributing Writer
Robin Florzak, Contributing Writer
Kris Gallagher, Contributing Writer
Ruhan Memishi, Contributing Writer
Heather J. Svoboda, Contributing Writer
Maria-Romina Hench, Copy Editor and
Contributing Writer
Visit us at depaul.edu/magazine
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t a b l e of c o n t e n t s
University News
Presidential A timely Q&A 6
People New leaders 8
Recognition Latest rankings 9
International Kenya, Philippines 10
Features
Innovations Creativity & Commerce 14
Research Seeking solutions in CDM 16
International DePaul in Haiti 18
The Arts Make it new 20
Teaching On the leading edge 22
Experience At work in the Big Easy 24
Alumni Connections
Profiles Alumni in action 28
People Reunion/Friends 30
Tidbits Useful news 32
Class Notes Whoʼs doing what 34
Alumni Planner Coming events 40

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.
DePaulʼs Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter received an award for Outstanding Regional
Activity at the 2009 PRSSA National Conference in San Diego. Co-hosted with Valparaiso University, the awardwinning
event, “A Taste of Chicago PR,” was held at DePaulʼs Loop Campus last year and keynoted by Cheryl Procter-
Rogers, vice president for Public Relations and Communications at DePaul and former national PRSA president.
Gregory Hutter and George Flynn, School of Music faculty members, have won 2009-2010
ASCAPLUS awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. The
award is “based on the unique prestige value of each writerʼs catalog of original compositions.”
(See p. 21 for more on Flynn.)
A 2009-2010 Fulbright Scholar Grant has been awarded to Scott Hibbard, assistant professor of political science in
the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He will lecture in American studies at American University in Cairo, Egypt.
The Chicago City Council approved DePaulʼs Lincoln Park Master Plan in December, following
sign-offs from the Chicago Plan Commission and the Zoning Commission in November. Beyond
the new academic building and School of Music and Theatre School facilities, DePaul will be
initiating a number of different community improvements.
Brad Smith (THE ʼ02) wrote and performed the song “Help Yourself” for the movie “Up in the Air,” starring George
Clooney, Jason Bateman, Vera Farminga, Anna Kendrick, Danny McBride and Zach Galifinakis, a hit in theatres this
past holiday season.
DePaul student-athletes led the BIG EAST Conference in 2008-2009 with seven teams earning the
highest GPAs in their respective sports—womenʼs basketball, womenʼs tennis, menʼs and womenʼs
cross country, menʼs indoor and outdoor track and field and menʼs soccer. The overall athletics
program recorded the highest GPA in the history of DePaul Athletics with a 3.335.
Despite the troubled economy, DePaul set an all-time record for enrollment this fall, surpassing 25,000 for the first time
while welcoming its most diverse freshman class ever. Total enrollment increased nearly 3 percent to 25,072 this year.
The strongest gains occurred in graduate programs and among transfer students.

university news
P R E S I D E N T I A L P R É C I S
“We have made this commitment to have
a cross-section of our society attend DePaul. The best way to meet that
promise is to build and carefully steward resources for that purpose.”
Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M.
President

QandA
with Fr.
Holtschneider
Uncertain economic conditions
and tight state budgets have cast
a spotlight on student financial
aid programs. The Rev. Dennis H.
Holtschneider, C.M., DePaul’s
president, recently talked
with DePaul Magazine about
financial aid, DePaul’s historical
commitment to educational
access and excellence, and the
role that scholarship resources
play at the university.
What is the current impact of this difficult
economy on government support of student
financial aid?
The conditions for government support of
student aid are about as complicated as Iʼve
ever seen them. State and federal aid is
unpredictable, influenced by the fiscal and
political conditions of the moment.
On one hand, the federal government is
expanding funding for certain programs, such
as the Pell grants and the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
These are long-overdue responses to the
growing educational needs of individuals and
communities for postsecondary education. On
the other hand, state budgets that traditionally
provided support for students from workingclass
and middle-class families as they attend
college have been impacted by the economy,
and the future of state funding is in jeopardy.
How about support from student loans?
In the United States, students and their families
have been relying more and more on parent
and student loans—the fastest-growing form of

financial aid—to finance their college degrees.
Last year, there was great turmoil in the
student loan industry as part of the banking
crisis. Since DePaul participates in the federal
direct lending program, most of our students
were unaffected by the unavailability of student
loans. Presently, this country is in transition
away from private lenders in the student-loan
market toward the direct lending model DePaul
has used for more than 10 years.
How are DePaul students dealing with
these conditions?
Our enrollments are solid, and close to
80 percent of our students receive some sort
of financial aid from the federal and state
governments as well as DePaulʼs grants and
scholarships. But the primary way students
help manage college costs is by working
while enrolled. Around 90 percent of our fulltime
students have at least one part-time
job, and many have two. Years ago, many
DePaul students worked full time and went
to school part time. Now, the model is
reversed, but, as always, almost all of our
students work to contribute directly to the
cost of their DePaul education.
Many families support their studentsʼ
education with assets, savings and borrowing.
However, this year, DePaul has seen significant
increases in appeals for supplemental financial
aid and in the number of students requesting
forms of emergency aid because of job losses
and savings and asset declines. As much as
we try to help students in these circumstances,
I can tell you that, in this economy, there are
students who have had to drop out because of
finances. Also, the amounts that our students
are borrowing continue to grow every year—
though our studentsʼ default rate is very low
compared with national averages.
Are academic excellence and affordability
at odds?
We have grown enormously over the past
20 years into one of the nationʼs leading
universities—the countryʼs largest Catholic
university. With that success and visibility
comes a responsibility to continue to live up to
our Vincentian promise: to make our education
financially accessible to all those who come
here and to make sure that the education we
offer lives up to the highest standards. To do
anything less is to fail to live up to our mission.
St. Vincent told us that “It is not enough to
do good. It must be done well.” Excellence has
costs—and a constant pressure to balance
those costs with affordable tuition. We must
continue to hire outstanding faculty in disciplines
as diverse as computer science, information
systems, law, science, business and the arts.
Specialized facilities with optimal and up-to-date
educational spaces have become a prerequisite
for excellence and are a major factor in
recruiting top faculty and students.
At the same time, our mission dictates that
we enroll a talented student body that reflects a
full spectrum of economic and cultural diversity;
an integral element of a DePaul education is
that students learn in a space that reflects the
pluralistic world in which they will live and work.
With a student body in which more than onethird
are first-generation college attendees,
DePaul must provide such students with the
financial and academic resources they need to
succeed and flourish.
How is DePaul planning to keep these
priorities in balance?
The country will get through this recession,
and so will DePaul. Our university must strike
a stable balance of public and private
scholarships, with institutional aid, family and
student contributions—and the prudent use of
loans in financing the educations of those who
come to DePaul. We must strike that balance
and still continue to make investments that
maintain and even increase the level of
academic excellence we have built.
I could go far back into the universityʼs
history to tell stories of people who thought
they would have to drop out, yet they were
supported by financial assistance from the
university. I could go right up to today with
such stories. This is still a place where we
take a personal interest in assuring student
success. We began as and remain a place
where an excellent education is available to
every qualified student, regardless of financial
status. DePaul is a place where talent is
embraced, shaped and enlarged, and not
turned away because of race, faith, gender
or economic status.
What role can alumni play?
We are fortunate to have steady support for
scholarships from donors—but there is a real
need to increase that support. Of our 139,000
living alumni, only about 7 percent provide
support that assists DePaul students. That
simply isnʼt sufficient to do the work we need
to do, which is why I have been out telling the
DePaul story. I talk about our richness as an
institution, but also about the need to partner
with our closest friends to safeguard the
experience that is DePaul and assure that it
continues.
We learn again and again, as an institution
and as individuals, that one generation
supports the next. The best way we can
respond to the ups and downs of the economy
and of government-funded aid is to assure that
we have increased funding of our own to help
our students. We have made this commitment
to have a cross-section of our society attend
DePaul and to support them as they succeed
and fulfill their dreams here. The best way to
meet that promise is to build and carefully
steward resources for that purpose.
We are dedicated to a high-quality
education. Demographic changes and the
demands of a knowledge-based global
economy are transforming our nation. To
make significant headway in increasing the
educational attainment of our population and
its comparative standing internationally, leading
institutions like DePaul must continue to
address disparities in educational opportunity
and achievement. We invite all of our alumni to
join us in that endeavor.
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U n i v e r s i t y
N e w s
The Most Rev. Jerome
Edward Listecki (LAW ’76)
Arnold Mitchem, president
of the Council for
Opportunity in Education
Kay E. Thurn, chair of the
Department of Nursing
DePaul Law Alumnus Named
Archbishop of Milwaukee
The Most Rev. Jerome Edward Listecki (LAW ’76)
was installed in January as the 11th archbishop
of Milwaukee. Listecki, a longtime DePaul
supporter, was previously bishop of the Diocese
of La Crosse, Wis.
“I am humbled by my selection as archbishop
of Milwaukee,” Listecki said in a statement released
Nov. 14. “I will do my best to fulfill the confidence
His Holiness Benedict XVI has placed in me.”
Listecki, a native of Chicago, was ordained a
priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1975. He
became an auxiliary bishop of Chicago in 2000 and
was appointed to La Crosse in 2004. He also is a
retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves.
The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M.,
DePaul’s president, said, “As the nation’s largest
Catholic university, the entire DePaul community
celebrates when one of our own assumes such a key
leadership position in the Church. I urge the
university and alumni to keep him and his ministry
in your prayers.”
Another DePaul alumnus, Bishop Thomas J.
Paprocki (LAW ’81), is an auxiliary bishop for the
Archdiocese of Chicago.
Center for Access and Attainment
Hosts Catholic Universities
A first-ever symposium titled “Balancing Market
and Mission: Enrollment Management Strategies in
Catholic Higher Education” was hosted by DePaul’s
Center for Access and Attainment this past October.
The symposium brought together enrollment and
mission leaders from Catholic universities across
the nation to discuss the balance between mission
aspirations and market realities as they shape
enrollment strategies and outcomes.
Arnold Mitchem, president of the Council for
Opportunity in Education, was the keynote speaker.
Institutions represented at the symposium included:
Catholic University of America, Dominican
University, Fordham University, Marquette
University, Niagara University, St. John’s University,
St. Joseph’s University, St. Xavier University, Santa
Clara University, University of Dayton, University
of San Diego and Xavier University of Louisiana.
Based on the enthusiastic feedback from
participants, the symposium is likely to become an
annual event. For more on this topic, please see
the article about the symposium featured in the
Chronicle of Higher Education at chronicle.com/
article/Catholic-Colleges-Work-to/48699.
Thurn Appointed to Head
Nursing Department
Veteran educator Kay E. Thurn assumed the chair
of the Department of Nursing on Nov. 1, just as
administrators learned that 100 percent of DePaul
nursing students who sat for the 2009 National
Council Licensure Examination for Registered
Nurses passed the exam.
Thurn, who served more than 30 years at
St. Xavier University, most recently as interim dean
of its nursing school, will work to expand DePaul’s
innovative nursing program. She is a registered
nurse and holds a master’s degree in psychiatric
nursing and a doctorate in clinical psychology.
She succeeds Susan Poslusny, who introduced
many innovations and degree programs during
her 15-year tenure.
DePaul’s nursing program focuses largely on
the master’s entry to nursing program, which
prepares college graduates who did not study
nursing for nursing careers. “We are thrilled to
have a professional of Kay’s caliber continue the
outstanding leadership our nursing department
has enjoyed for many years,” says Charles Suchar,
dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
which houses the department.

Latest National
Ranking Highlights
Commerce and Law
■ Entrepreneur magazine and The Princeton Review ranked
DePaulʼs undergraduate entrepreneurship program eighth
and the graduate program ninth nationally among more than
2,300 schools surveyed for this yearʼs guidebook, “Best
Schools for Entrepreneurs.”
■ In BusinessWeekʼs 2009 rankings, the College of Commerceʼs
undergraduate program had the second-highest ranking
among Illinois programs rated.
■ DePaulʼs College of Commerce has been awarded Four
Palms for being an internationally known top business
school, and it placed 34th in the United States category of
a ranking of the 1,000 best business schools in the world
issued by Eduniversal, a Paris-based educational consulting
organization. The ranking, which encompasses both the
College of Commerceʼs undergraduate program and the
Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, was based on an
international survey of business school deans and the ratings
of a 12-member independent team of education experts.
■ The College of Lawʼs highly respected faculty members and
congenial student body placed it among the nationʼs most
outstanding law schools, according to a recent survey by
The Princeton Review. The findings were based on student
responses to survey questions posed by the New York-based
education services company for the 2010 edition of its
guidebook, “The Best 172 Law Schools.”
■ The College of Law has been distinguished among the nationʼs
top 50 producers of “super lawyers” in the 2010 Super Lawyers
U.S. Law School Rankings by Minneapolis-based publisher
Law & Politics, placing 45th out of 180 law schools ranked in
the publicationʼs inaugural survey. About 450 DePaul law
graduates are identified as super lawyers by Super Lawyers
magazine and on its Web site at www.superlawyers.com.
The magazine, which reaches more than 13 million readers,
recognized such DePaul alumni as Philip H. Corboy Jr. of
Corboy & Demetrio; Larry R. Rogers Sr. of Power, Rogers &
Smith; and John B. Simon of Jenner & Block.
Hundreds Turn Out for Atwood’s “Novel”
Performance at Merle Reskin
Acclaimed Canadian author Margaret Atwood (far left) narrated a
theatrical reading from her newest novel, “The Year of the Flood,”
at DePaul Universityʼs Merle Reskin Theatre on Nov. 6. The only
Midwest performance of her international book tour featured (from left)
DePaul English Professor Anne Clark Bartlett (who organized the
event), School of Music Lecturer Marc Embree and Theatre School
senior Loresa Grigsby as characters from the post-apocalyptic novel
with an environmental theme. The performance, which also included
student choral singers from the School of Music, attracted more than
900 people, the largest crowd of the tour to date. See a video of the
performance at www.youtube.com/watch?v=88fDE92Pdxs
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9

G l o b a l
D e P a u l
DePaul Program Graduates
New Crop of Kenyan Leaders
Dateline: Manila, Philippines
“The Adamson
[University] volunteers
inspire all of us at
DePaul and in Chicago
to dedicate our capacity
toward community
empowerment and
poverty alleviation.”
– Luis Barbosa
School of Public Service student
and 2009 Manila program participant
who joined in community work with
students from Adamson University,
the Vincentian university in Manila
The second cohort of students graduated Dec. 10 from a DePaul University
program in Nairobi, Kenya, designed to help graduates assume leadership
and management roles in their African religious communities and social
service organizations.
In partnership with Tangaza College, students in the 18-month program
received DePaul bachelor of arts degrees after completing the equivalent of an
associate degree from Tangaza. DePaul faculty members from the School for
New Learning (SNL) collaborate with Tangaza faculty to design the courses and
assess student work.
Thirteen students participated in the Dec. 10 commencement. About half of
them are religious men and women, while the rest are laypeople.
One religious sister graduating from the program is studying the impact of
personality types on leadership styles in Burundi, while two others are examining
community leadership in Kenya and Sudan. A lay student is working with young
women who live in informal settlements in Kibera slums, while another nun is
exploring how technology can improve the sustainability of faith-based projects in
Kenya. Three students are police officers who want to improve the relationships
between police and community residents. Several students are studying Kenyan
youth, seeking ways to incorporate civic education and responsible use of technology
in their lives. Another student is exploring empowerment among the Maasai women.
Graduates of the DePaul University/Tangaza B.A. degree program approach
their ministries in holistic ways that address spiritual, moral, intellectual, physical,
familial, social, economic and environmental factors. They learn practical skills
in areas such as information technology, professional writing, organizational
development and financial accounting.
“We are working to make higher education accessible beyond Chicago, beyond
Illinois, beyond the United States of America,” says Derise Tolliver Atta, Chicago
program director and an associate professor at SNL.

Loop “College Town” Booming,
Needs a Grocery Store
Twenty-four higher education institutions in Chicagoʼs Loop,
through their employees, students and own expenditures,
generate more than $4 billion in regional economic activity
annually, including at least $60 million in student retail
purchases, according to the 2009 Higher Education Economic
Impact Report and Student Survey Update released Nov. 23.
Commissioned by the Chicago Loop Alliance (CLA), with
student survey data compiled by researchers at DePaul, the
study shows that the Loopʼs higher education sector is a vital
economic engine that contributes to the growth and overall
health of the economy in the Chicago region. The findings
update and expand upon research released by CLA last June
and in 2004.
There are 65,499 students enrolled in higher education
institutions in the Loop and South Loop, making the Loop the
largest college town in Illinois. This number represents a 25
percent increase since 2005. The students attend classes at
institutions that together occupy nearly 8 million square feet of
real estate—more than double the space of the Willis Tower
(formerly the Sears Tower).
The retail portion of the study conducted by DePaul
marketing professors Sue Fogel and J. Steven Kelly, with
assistance from Gerald W. McLaughlin, associate vice president
for Institutional Planning and Research, and Fran Casey, director
of Community Affairs at DePaul, conservatively estimated that
students spend $60 million annually at a variety of store types
in the Loop.
The most frequented establishments included fast-food
restaurants, bars, cafés and drug stores. Students said they
would most like to see more affordable restaurants in the Loop,
as well as a cross-college student center and later hours for
retailers. A grocery store was the most popular response to an
open-ended question about what students could not find in the
Loop that they would like to see.
“The students have told us what they want. Now, itʼs up to
the business and higher education communities to respond,”
said Ty Tabing, executive director of CLA. “An economically
healthy and prosperous downtown Chicago depends upon the
students and employees of more than two dozen higher
educational institutions in the Loop and South Loop.”
New Book Advocates Sustainable Business
Solution to Poverty
Multinational corporations can simultaneously alleviate global
poverty and reach a potentially huge yet untapped consumer
and employee market if they put aside biases and team up with
an atypical business partner—the worldʼs poor. However, to
succeed, these business partnerships must be designed to be
profitable, according to a new book, co-written by DePaul
University professors, that provides a fresh perspective on
poverty reduction.
In “Alleviating Poverty Through Profitable Partnerships”
(Routledge 2009), authors Patricia H. Werhane, Laura P.
Hartman and Scott P. Kelley of DePaul and Dennis J. Moberg of
Santa Clara (Calif.) University, draw on research by prominent
business ethicists and poverty experts to conclude that the
private sector holds the key to ending poverty.
The tradition of relying primarily on government aid and
private philanthropy to address poverty is “flawed,” the authors
argue, because it is unsustainable. “Instead, companies should
seek profitable partnerships with the poor for mutual gain. By
developing new markets for their products and creating new
jobs and opportunities for economic development, profitable
partnerships hold the potential to create value for shareholders
as well as for these new stakeholders,” the authors conclude.
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11

Entrepreneurs Ryan Powszok and Chris Campbell. See p. 15.

features
P E R C E P T I V E
P O I N T
“Innovations emerge when we pay
attention to the possibilities and opportunities afforded by our experiences.
Innovators possess keen skills of observation and reflection. They are
alert to the need for change.”
Lisa Gundr y
Management professor in the College of Commerce and director
of its Center for Creativity and Innovation. See next page.

The Business of
Innovation:
Creating Meaningful Change
At the heart of innovation lies the process of creating something
new that is of value to individuals, organizations and communities.
Innovations emerge from the need or desire to change in the face
of obstacles and opportunities—whether in education, business,
government or other contexts.
Across industries and borders, organizations now are confronted
by turbulent and unpredictable conditions. They are under everincreasing
pressure to attract and retain talented workers and to
satisfy customers or constituents. The proliferation of social
media and mobile technology has revolutionized the ways that
people and organizations communicate. These realities require
re-examining or reinventing how organizations operate and
interact with stakeholders.
The seeds of innovation come from a variety of sources.
Innovations can evolve through conversations or observations
with individuals or groups who are affected or influenced by
the services or products provided to them. Innovations emerge
when we pay attention to the possibilities and opportunities
afforded by our experiences. Innovators possess keen skills of
observation and reflection. They notice problems and look
ahead to opportunities. They are alert to the need for change.
The process of innovation involves asking questions such
as, “What should organizations (or departments and teams)
such as ours be thinking about, planning and providing that
we are not yet doing? What will our constituents want in a few
months—or one to two years—that is not available yet? What
does everybody think ‘won’t work’ in our area?”
Innovation is fostered by environments in which individuals
and groups are encouraged to think creatively, to experiment and
try new things, and to take risks that stretch what is known or
has been done before. Universities are among those organizations
at the forefront of innovation. As a community of scholars
providing quality higher education to one of the most diverse
student populations in the country, DePaul continually is
innovating as it discovers and implements more effective ways
to enrich academic quality, one of the university’s strategic goals.
Another goal is to prepare students to be socially responsible
future leaders and engaged alumni. DePaul students are acquiring
the skills needed to identify and resolve some of the most
challenging problems facing communities and organizations
around the world.
The following pages highlight such innovative efforts with
examples that go from classroom to community. By aiding new
value creation, the university community creates meaningful
and lasting change for future generations.
Lisa Gundry is a management professor in the College of Commerce
and director of its Center for Creativity and Innovation. She also is a
frequent guest writer for BusinessWeek.com’s Small Business Innovation
Tips column.
by Lisa Gundr y

Leading the Pack
Staying ahead of the curve is the key to success in the advertising
and marketing business. DePaul entrepreneurs Russell Gottesman,
Chris Campbell and Ryan Powszok continually innovate
their business practices to stay on the leading edge of their
industries and help their clients.
Gottesman, an MBA student in the entrepreneurship
program, is founder of Dayton, Ohio-based Commuter
Advertising, which sells audio ads on public transit vehicles
and shares its revenue with the local transit agency.
Gottesman, whose background includes working for
Westwood One in Chicago selling the 10-second radio
commercials that are attached to traffic reports, says the
idea came to him while he and his wife, Katie, were riding
the CTA’s Red Line on their way home from a White Sox
game. “It just dawned on me. Why can’t we do those same
reports, but, instead of drivers, it can affect transit riders in
a train or bus? We happened to pass Chinatown, and we
thought that a fantastic way for one restaurant to stand out
from competitors would be to do a captive announcement
about their business inside a transit vehicle.”
Commuter Advertising developed software so that the
targeted ads would air at certain stops, and soon after the
company landed its first contract with the Greater Dayton
Regional Transit Authority in Ohio. Nearly two years later,
the company is in five markets, enabling advertisers to
reach more than 48 million rides.
Besides growing Commuter Advertising by adding
markets and advertising clients, Gottesman says the
company needs to continuously develop ways to do
Gottesman
things differently that allow the business to get
better. “To be innovative is to understand the
process and how you can improve your product and execute the strategy to do that. For us,
we have to embrace emerging technologies, such as creating a virtual sales office and using
Skype and text messaging, to become more of a 360-degree marketing solution for our clients
instead of doing just audio ads. It means embracing some of our software development,
which we do on an ongoing basis.”
Campbell (CMN ’09) and Powszok (COM ’07) teamed up in 2007 to found Chicagobased
Lakeshore Branding, which provides Web site design and Internet marketing services
for small- to medium-sized businesses. What excites them about what they do is the everchanging
nature of the industry. “You have to maintain a constant pulse on what’s going on in
the industry. It’s constantly changing and evolving, and we have to work with our clients to
innovate the approach and strategy for their campaigns,” says Campbell, search engine
optimization specialist, who adds that the public expects much more from a company Web
site than it did five or 10 years ago. “They’re not looking for just a phone number and
address anymore. They want to make a purchase, have a conversation and interact online.”
Powszok, Lakeshore’s creative director, says staying on the leading edge of Web design
and balancing usability can be a challenge. “A great design has to maintain the delicate balance
of conveying the company brand while focusing on converting your Web site visitors to sales.
Another important thing is to figure out what are the trends and what are the revolutions.
For example, a lot of people first thought social media was a trend, but it’s become a
fundamental shift in the way we communicate.”
Smart Cookies
Students in Assistant Professor Kelly
Richmond Pope’s Management Accounting
course didn’t expect that rolling out
cookies would be part of their course work.
But Pope wanted to give them some
hands-on experience with accounting
in a manufacturing environment.
For The Cookie Project, each team of
four students forms a company, with each
student assuming the roles of CEO, CFO,
researcher and baker, though they all work
together on each aspect of the project. Each
team has a budget of $15 to develop a product
and buy materials.
“It’s a fun way to incorporate a lot of
different concepts in class,” she says. “This
project allows students to create their own
manufacturing environment. That’s why you
need something like this, rather than just
talking about the concepts.”
Tamar Gargir, a junior majoring in
accountancy and the researcher for the winning
team, says, “It was a hands-on experience that
made the subject a lot less dry. The way she
integrated it into the class made it relevant.”
by Maria Hench
Pope with Gargir
by Maria Hench
f e a t u r e
15

....CrackingM.
...Computing!s !
...Conundrums.
What do Wikipedia, traffic lights and busy
restaurant kitchens have in common?
They’re all metaphors for computer science projects that together
have won almost $1.5 million in National Science Foundation
grants for researchers at DePaul’s College of Computing and
Digital Media.
The awards were announced in September and will fund three
different projects for the next three years. Each award was just
under a half-million dollars.
One award went to Jane Huang, an associate professor who
specializes in putting together requirements and specifications
for complicated software development projects, and Professor
Bamshad Mobasher, who does research in data mining and
recommender systems—like the ones at Amazon.com that suggest
books for you based on your purchasing history. Their combined
expertise could produce powerful new tools to improve the odds
of success for software developers, using techniques that have
never before been applied to this particular type of problem.
Enterprise-wide software projects can be vast, like the
$600 million FBI Virtual Case File system, intended to give the
agency 21st-century database capabilities so that its offices could
share information without resorting to faxes and overnight mail. It
started development in 2000 and was so badly bungled that it had
to be abandoned in 2005. When these kinds of projects fail, as
they often do, Huang says that faulty requirement engineering is
usually at least partly to blame.
Questionnaires and focus groups have historically been the
tools of choice for gathering users’ ideas, but they’re no longer
adequate in organizations that may have thousands of users with
millions of feature requests. “Projects are getting much larger and
more complex and becoming more globally distributed, and people
are trying to do the same old face-to-face meetings,” Huang says.
“I was at a research meeting where they said, ‘We’ll never be able
to effectively manage the requirements engineering process on the
Web.’ I said, ‘Look at my kids, who organize their entire social
lives there! I think we can do it.’”
She wants to apply Internet-style interaction tools like forums
and wikis to the task of gathering opinions from future users of
software. The resulting mountain of information will lend itself
to the kind of analysis that is Mobasher’s expertise and has not
been explored in the domain of software engineering before. They
will create tools that can identify requirements or discussion
topics that are related—even if the participants are using different
words to describe them—and help users connect with others who
share their concerns. The tools also will sort through all the input
to come up with suggested system requirements.
“People might say the same thing in millions of different
ways, or might say contradictory things,” Mobasher says. “It’s
a jumble of data, and data mining can sift through it all to find
patterns and eliminate the noise.”
The other two NSF awards went to Professor Radha Jagadeesan
and associate professors Corin Pitcher and James Riely. One of
their proposals focuses on making sure computer systems are
trustworthy, and the other on helping programmers write software
that uses hardware more efficiently.
When most people hear the words “computer security,” they
think of preventing hackers from breaking in or infecting a system
by Elizabeth Gardner

with a virus—that is, locking
the door to keep the bad guys
out. But another aspect of
security is often more
important day to day, and
that’s accountability: making
sure that a system’s users are
adhering to its rules, and
having a way to track who
does what. ‘It’s like a traffic
light on a roadway,” Riely says.
“Nothing prevents me from
going through it, but I might
get a ticket if I do.”
The Internet has vastly
increased the interest in this Mobasher and Huang
kind of security problem, Riely
says. “A computer used to be
an isolated object, and you’d
have one person in charge of
it,” he says. “If something went
wrong, you knew whom to
blame. Now, the software on a
computer comes from multiple
mutually distrusting parties,
and we have to come up with
mechanisms that allow them to
interact without compromising
their individual security goals.”
Malicious software can exploit
security holes in other
programs to get them to do
Riely, Jagadeesan and Pitcher
things that they shouldn’t, and
sometimes programs can inadvertently interact in a way that causes
damage. To plug the holes and fix the bugs, it’s vital to know where
those bad instructions came from. The team aims to create a
theoretical framework for designing systems that track all that,
without the user having to worry about it.
Jagadeesan draws a comparison with the accountability trail used
in medical care, where each action can be traced back to the person
who originally ordered it. “When all the participants keep track of the
instructions they’ve been given, they later have a way of establishing
what went wrong in a certain set of circumstances,” he says. “We are
trying to figure out how to make
that process efficient.” One
challenge is to determine the
minimum amount of information
that a system needs to store so that
it doesn’t get clogged with every
detail of every interaction.
“A system might be logging a
lot of stuff that it doesn’t have to, or
might be logging the wrong stuff,”
he says. A medical information
system, for example, might be
prohibited from logging certain
details under the Health Information
Portability and Accountability Act.
The team’s other project is a
study of “stateful interfaces” to
develop better tools for programmers
working with complex multiprocessor
computers. Realizing the
performance promise of multi-core
computers requires multi-threaded
software that can use the available
resources effectively. The trouble is
that such software is notoriously
difficult to write, resulting in errors
that programmers don’t catch.
Stateful interfaces allow
components of a program to be
more flexible in the way they work
together, making it easier to write
reliable software for multi-core
systems.
“It’s easy to build a computer with multiple [processor] cores, but
it’s hard to make them work together effectively,” Riely says. It’s like
a restaurant kitchen during the dinner rush: if all the cooks fought
to use a particular pan instead of using all the pans available, meals
would never get to the table and pans would sit idle. “We started in
this area because it creates so many problems for programmers, and
it’s so easy to get things wrong.”
Freelance business and technology writer Elizabeth Gardner has covered
advanced applications of the Internet for such publications as University
Business, Internet Retailer and Modern Healthcare. She is based in Chicago.
f e a t u r e
17

Love is Inventive
Unto Infinity:
DePaul in Haiti
The movement began with two ordinary people, spurred by
faith, who walked the streets of 17th century Paris and the
dusty roads of rural France attending to the poor. The ordinary
became extraordinary as Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac
multiplied the reach and impact of their aid by encouraging other
women and men of compassion to join the crusade. Some 350 years
later, their innovative spirit still inspires Vincentian efforts to
eradicate poverty that persists around the world today.
To commemorate the 350th anniversary of Vincent’s and Louise’s
deaths this year, all branches of the worldwide Vincentian family are
collaborating on a major initiative to help the poorest of the poor
through a microfinance program in Haiti set to be launched in April,
according to Laura Hartman, Vincent de Paul Professor of Business
Ethics, who was asked a year ago by the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider,
C.M., university president, to spearhead DePaul’s role in the initiative.
Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and the
seventh poorest in the world. For the past year, Vincentian organizations
have been laying the foundation for this major effort to give Haitians
seed money to create and develop small businesses that will make a
big difference. DePaul, the Haitian Diaspora (Haitians and Haitian
descendents who live outside Haiti) and Fonkoze (fonkoze.org), Haiti’s
alternative bank for those who are not served well by traditional banks,
all are playing key roles in the effort.
“This effort couldn’t have been more timely,” Holtschneider says.
“For a nation that had so little, the little it had was lost in January’s
tragic earthquake.”
The international planning committee partnered with Fonkoze
because it is the most successful microfinance institution in Haiti and is
closely aligned with the values of St. Vincent, according to Hartman. The
project was designed to increase investment in the Haitian economy and

create jobs by building an Internet pathway between the worldwide
Vincentian family and the Haitian Diaspora, along with other interested
parties. Businesses and projects that hold the best promise for bolstering
Haiti’s economy, creating jobs for the poorest, and strengthening micro,
small and medium enterprises will receive funds generated through
donations, she says.
The Internet pathway that will make this possible is a Web site
that provides a reliable, safe and easy
online tool enabling people to
contribute money to specific sustainable
projects, Hartman says. In addition, the
site will provide Haitian entrepreneurs
with online access to funding, allowing
them to overcome challenges posed by
illiteracy, language barriers and access to
technology. All projects, no matter how
small, must clear a review by a steering
committee prior to being posted on the
Web site to attract funding.
The Web site was created entirely
by a team from DePaul’s College of
Zionts, Miller and Hartman
Computing and Digital Media (CDM).
Dean David Miller and Associate Dean
Martin Kalin wrote the code that built
the site from scratch; William Banks,
a Web application designer in CDM,
worked on site design; and CDM faculty
and students are testing it.
Though the Web site won’t be fully functioning until April, those
interested in contributing to the program can find out how to do so now at
zafen.org. “Zafen” was selected as the name of the microfinance program. It
means “our business” in Haitian Creole.
Miller noted that the Web site isn’t designed to provide short-term disaster
relief in the aftermath of the tragic earthquake that struck. “We are there to
provide a long-term sustainable solution to help the people of Haiti,” he says.
“We’re not asking only for donations. Of course, they are accepted,”
Hartman says. “We’re asking for interest-free loans so that projects can
get supported. When borrowers pay back their loans, people will want to
contribute to another project because they’ll see that the loans are worthy
of contribution.” It’s easy for anyone to help. Some loans will be as small
as $5.
While specific projects are still being reviewed, Hartman offered
examples of the types of small-scale ventures that could be funded through
this initiative. They include a water filtration project in a small community
that otherwise couldn’t afford one, and a small school-supplies store that
would give children a place near them to buy supplies.
“Fifty dollars can put a Haitian child through school for an entire
year,” she says. “Contributing $50 is an extraordinary investment not only
in a child’s future, but in the future of the economic development of Haiti.
Where else can your money have that type of return?”
Though the establishment of the microfinance mechanism is a
centerpiece, the Haiti project is much larger than the Web site. DePaul’s School
of Education (SOE), for example, will be working with Haitian teachers
starting this summer. “The best way to
overcome poverty, besides making
microfinance loans, is to educate the
work force,” says Paul Zionts, dean of
SOE. “And that’s what we’re going to be
doing the best we can.”
After a group of SOE faculty
members travels to Haiti on a factfinding
mission to observe the
classrooms there, a group of Haitian
teachers will be flown to Chicago
to work with SOE on classroom
management and differentiated
instruction, says Zionts. SOE also
plans to develop DVDs with voiceovers
in Creole for distribution to
teachers in Haiti.
“The beauty of it is that it will
be tailored to them because we’ll be
working with the Haitian teachers here
to determine their needs,” Zionts says.
Other programs that are part of the Haiti initiative include:
partnerships with two community organizations in Haiti (FATEM and the
Family Institute) to determine where the greatest needs are; an analysis of
FATEM’s strategic plan and suggestions for improvements by students from
DePaul’s School of Public Service; and the launch of a large-scale schoolmeals
program so children will be well-nourished while they are in school.
“We all know how difficult it is to concentrate in the classroom on an
empty stomach,” Hartman says.
Although much progress has been made, service to those living in
poverty is as important today as it ever was. “It was the poor who inspired
Vincent de Paul to organize aid to satisfy basic human needs in France in
the 1600s,” says Holtschneider. “Today, many Haitians lack food, shelter
and the education necessary to build better lives for themselves and their
families. Following Vincent’s example, this project can ignite positive
systemic change in Haitian society.”
DePaul is hosting a yearlong 350th anniversary celebration. For a complete
listing of projects and events, visit mission.depaul.edu/350/calendar.asp.
by Ruhan Memishi
f e a t u r e
19

Inventing
Arts
the
Bullard
What is art if not invention?
The director re-imagines a classic play, which itself was once an
invention. The jazz saxophonist adds her own riffs to a composer’s
score. Actors, musicians and craftsmen all add their signature
touches to every production. Yet on every stage, some artists stand
out for the way they break the mold—or in some cases, invent it.
Improv without Words
Six corporate employees careen across a barren stage on rolling office
chairs, taking the audience on a wild police chase, through a luxurious
shower and into an illicit romance. It’s a classic Second City physical
sketch, with a catch—not a word is spoken.
That’s the essence of “Reverie,” co-written and directed by Dexter
Bullard, associate professor, The Theatre School (TTS). The show
garnered critical acclaim during a highly competitive international
comedy festival in Montreal last summer.
“Reverie” is the brainchild of Bullard, who directs Second City’s
touring shows, and Kelly Leonard, a producer at the famed improv
house. On a stage where political satire rules, Leonard dreamed of
producing a show that wouldn’t require audiences to understand
English. Bullard, who uses physical comedy sequences to create
transitions between the otherwise unrelated sketches in touring
shows, realized that non-verbal skits could stand on their own.
Bullard concocted a wordless meta-story about six businesspeople
nervously waiting for a meeting to begin. One by one, the six slip into
daydreams.
“Improv has this ability to go anywhere—outer space, underwater—
instantly, without the trappings of scenery,” says Bullard, who has
directed for Second City since 1996. “It’s how people move their bodies,
the gestures and the expressions on their faces that tell the whole story.”
Using a handful of props to create “Reverie” was a natural
extension of Bullard’s work at Plasticene Physical Theater, which he cofounded.
The troupe creates productions by choosing settings and
finding the play within.
“The dominant 99 percent of theatre is interpretation of an idea or
script. Plasticene is part of that 1 percent who work associatively and
sculpturally and don’t necessarily end up with a script. We end up with
a performance,” Bullard says.
Bullard would love to stage “Reverie” for audiences around the world
and in Chicago, for the benefit of those whose first language isn’t English.
“They can be sure they can come to [“Reverie”] and get the joke, because
everybody has had trouble keeping an unruly cat off their lap.”
Contemporary Compositions
In contemporary piano music, a cluster is a large group of notes played
simultaneously, either with the hands and forearms or by a felt-covered
board. It took George Flynn, professor of composition at the School of
Music, to invent the full-body cluster.
“You lie across the piano and you have to assume a certain
position so you get all the notes in between,” explains Flynn, with
eyes twinkling.
It’s just one of many innovations that distinguish the work of the
prolific composer, who has roughly 150 pieces to his credit. “Trinity,”
which features two of his famed anti-war works and a third piece that
reacts to them, may be the first CD to include the sheet music so that
aficionados can follow along. His latest release, “American City,” was
described by Time Out Chicago as an open love letter to Chicago and
one of the best albums of the year. At age 73, Flynn, co-director of
New Music DePaul, averages a new composition every two months.
He’s beginning work on “American Howl Quartet,” inspired by Allen
Ginsberg’s poem, for the Anaphora Ensemble, which includes alumni
by Kris Gallagher

Flynn
Smith
Cory Tiffin (MUS ’07) and Aurelien Pederzoli-Fort (MUS ’06), followed
by a piece for members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
Flynn makes the process of composing sound easy. He once
explained it this way to a friend over lunch: “You and I, let’s start a piece
right here. … First of all, let’s choose an instrumentation—piano/violin.
And I realized I was in the mood for that. … It’s going to be an amiable
conversation between the violin and piano, in the middle range—not
too high, not too low, not too soft, not too loud—just right in the
middle of everything. … And furthermore, both the piano and violin,
which are having this conversation, are talking about the same thing.”
In Flynn’s imagination, the notes rose and fell, until he had explained
an entire piece.
“My friend thought it was very interesting. So did I,” says Flynn,
who decided to turn his explanation into an actual composition.
“It’s called, ‘Til Death.’ It’s about a marriage.” You’ll find it on his
“Together” CD.
Better Broken Bottles
In “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Stella famously threatens Stanley with a
bottle she breaks onstage. Actors don’t use real bottles, of course—broken
glass is too dangerous. But a stage-appropriate breakaway bottle costs
upwards of $20. Champagne bottles cost about $40. Custom designs, like
the futuristic vase needed for last season’s “Flow My Tears, the Policeman
Said,” can cost hundreds just for the mold. Problematically, The Theatre
School needed to break a lot of bottles and vases last year.
Enter Wayne Smith, head of the school’s prop shop. He knew
DePaul couldn’t afford to buy its own casting machine. But, as he
peered at the equipment online, the former engineer decided he could
build one.
In fact, he already had the right sort of motor, 30 years old and
covered in dust. Experienced at building bicycles, Smith added $200
worth of chains, gears and brightly colored rotating frames. He created
a mold, poured in the specialized plastic, turned it on and, presto! He
had half a bottle, top to bottom.
“Casting a bottle is not a simple thing. It’s a hollow vessel. You
need to rotate the mold. It’s not like a dryer that rotates on just one
axis. It needs to rotate on two axes simultaneously and, as I learned,
out of synch,” Smith says. Undeterred, he changed a gear to make the
frames rotate asynchronously and tried again.
By spring, Smith had the process down. His molds, which last 10
to 15 years, cost just $100 to $150 to create, and individual bottles cost
$5 to $7 apiece. Most importantly, TTS students are now learning
casting techniques.
Smith’s next goal is to create soft, flexible, non-breakable bottles—
“great for fight scenes,” he says.
Web links:
George Flynn
georgeflynn.net
To order CDs
chicagosound.com/Artists/George_Flynn.htm
To listen online
classicalconnect.com/#/browse/composer/George_Flynn
Second City
www.secondcity.com
Plasticene Physical Theater
plasticene.com
Season schedule, The Theatre School
theatreschool.depaul.edu/showmain.php
f e a t u r e
21

Creativity for the
Classroom
Inspired by a passion for their area
of expertise and satisfaction at seeing
students make progress, dedicated
DePaul teachers continue to create
ways to illuminate their students’
understanding of the subject matter.
Trezek
That ‘A-ha’ Moment
Beverly Trezek says “a light bulb went on” as she,
an experienced teacher of deaf and hard-of-hearing
students, worked on her master’s degree in teaching
students with learning disabilities. When she learned of
a system in her master’s classes that enabled students to
make rapid progress in reading by learning how to sound
out groups of letters, she thought to herself, “So that’s one
of the reasons why deaf children struggle so much with
reading—they can’t hear.”
As she continued her research as a Ph.D. student,
Trezek combined a systematic curriculum, called Direct
Instruction, with Visual Phonics—a method that helps deaf
students visualize and represent sounds using their hands
and mouths. This combination dramatically increased deaf
students’ reading skills, which commonly do not rise above
the fourth-grade level—even in high school.
Today, as an assistant professor of literacy and
specialized instruction in the School of Education, Trezek
researches and publishes widely on her method and shares
it with her reading specialist students and area schools
that work with deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
“I teach my students the Visual Phonics system
because it has applications for students with auditory
processing problems, learning disabilities and other
categories such as autism. Some of my students even use it
with their English-language learners,” she says.
“I have applied both Direct Instruction and Visual
Phonics into my daily teaching and have seen great gains
in many of the students’ skill sets. And the best part is,
they think it is fun,” says Amy Kurth-Burin, a speech and
language pathologist at a middle school who is completing
the final year of her graduate studies in language, literacy
and specialized instruction. “Dr. Trezek is a role model as I
continue in my profession.”
Here are just a few of many examples.

The “Organic Web”
A few years ago,
Associate Professor Matt
Dintzner had an idea to
help students master the
intimidating science of
organic chemistry.
“It occurred to me
that the Internet is the
perfect way to teach
organic chemistry because
organic chemistry is a
web,” Dintzner says. So,
Dintzner
incorporating 10 years of
teaching, he created what he calls an “Organic Web.” His visual,
online system configures the vast amounts of detailed information
an organic chemistry student must master into an elegant “mind
map” designed to make the material more comprehensible and
memorable.
“In my experience, one of the major obstacles in learning
organic chemistry is that students get caught up in the details and
never see the big picture, which can lead to memorization or surface
learning. The “Organic Web” allows students to see the big picture
while also making the details accessible in a more layered way than
a traditional textbook can,” Dintzner says.
“It’s nice to see how vastly different classes of organic molecules
can be interconnected through chemical reactions—and “Organic
Web” does so visually and aesthetically in a literal web of
compounds connected through the reactions they undergo,” says
Mark Aparece, a third-year biochemistry undergrad.
Elizabeth Seggelke Rohn, a post-baccalaureate student who is
preparing for a career in medicine, agrees. “It’s as easy as other
interactive programs, such as MapQuest. The main screen shows the
‘whole city’ of organic chemistry, and with a simple click you can see
the ‘address’ of the detailed mechanism, as well as pertinent information
and hints about the reaction. I love organic chemistry, and I blame Dr.
D. entirely!” she says.
When asked how he could devote endless hours to figuring out
how to configure the information and learning how to use Web tools,
Dintzner says, “Organic chemistry is a very challenging subject for
most students, and, in order for me to do my job well, I need to
make the subject as accessible as possible. I’m inspired both by the
subject matter and the students.”
Dintzner is readying his “Organic Web” for release with the help
of an online publisher. He’s happy to report that when his students
take the American Chemical Society test for professional certification,
“they’ve been doing phenomenally well the last couple of years.”
Where the Action Is
In a time when everyone’s
wondering where journalism
is going next, Mike Conklin is
sending his students to places
few journalism students get
to go. As a result, many of his
students are well-positioned to
create opportunities for themselves
as they enter the workplace.
As a young reporter in a small
Illinois town, Conklin rode with
police officers and firefighters to
Conklin
get in on the news. Today, Conklin,
who was a staff writer and columnist for the Chicago Tribune for 35 years,
works his extensive Rolodex to connect his advanced journalism students in
the College of Communication with news in the making—from Chicago to
Washington to Vancouver.
“He’s a great connector to reach the right people at the right time and
gain access to events,” says Craig Kanalley (CMN ’09), who earned his master’s
degree in journalism and now works for The Huffington Post and the prestigious
Poynter Institute for Media Studies. “He’s a big believer in giving students
preliminary tools and then having them learn through practical experience.”
“I was working before I walked the stage at commencement, due in no
small part to Mike’s endless wealth of support,” says Michelle Stoffel (CMN
’09). Conklin set up her interview for a student internship at the Tribune
Co., and Stoffel quickly worked herself into a position with the organization’s
Triblocal, which covers the Chicago suburbs.
“Your job is talking to people,” Conklin tells his students. He says he
creates “real life” experiences in his lower-level classes by bringing people in
for students to interview and having them cover “lower impact” events, such
as speeches, panel discussions and meetings. That way, he says, he can “help
them get a tight grip on how they should ‘work’ a story.”
Conklin positions advanced students on the front lines—driving with
them to Iowa to cover the 2008 caucuses and linking them to write for local
newspaper editors and The Associated Press. His connections with the
International Olympic Committee enabled students to cover Chicago’s bid all
the way to Copenhagen, and five students and two recent graduates were
invited to intern at the Winter Games in Vancouver in February.
Students also went to cover presidential inauguration events in Washington,
D.C.—with Conklin’s instructions to seek out “stories that no one else is
covering.” He set them up with Lonnie Bunch, director of the Smithsonian
National Museum of African-American History and Culture. “They interviewed
him on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, just before the inauguration of the first
black president. I told them, ‘It doesn’t get much better than this,’” he says.
In the new media era, journalists “still need solid reporting skills,”
Conklin says. “The real thrill is to see students evolve into being capable.”
by Carol Sadtler
f e a t u r e
23

theNew Social
Entrepreneurs:
MBA Students Train for a New Era
As a new generation hits the job market, the idea of working New Orleans. He and his group work with Social Entrepreneurs of New
for an organization that generates social good along with a Orleans (SENO), a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to connect
paycheck is gaining considerable ground. Recent national surveys
by the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education found that 88
percent of business students believe for-profit companies should
do more to address social and environmental problems, and
students increasingly want to work for organizations that do so.
Recent events that have shaken the
entrepreneurs with people who can help them get their businesses going.
While they were there, the DePaul students and the organization talked a
lot about what defines social entrepreneurship. They concluded that “a
social entrepreneur sees that there is a social problem and works to do
something about it,” Block says.
In addition to helping local
business world are causing some business
students to re-evaluate traditional career
options, according to MBA student Justin
Henderson, president of DePaul’s 140-
member chapter of Net Impact, a national
student organization dedicated to developing
and inspiring socially engaged leaders who
create positive change through commerce.
“Because of the recession and the
financial and housing crises, there’s been a
growing disillusionment with big business,”
Henderson says. “More and more MBA
students are now targeting companies
The social entrepreneurship movement has spread
to DePaulʼs New Venture Challenge, a student and
recent alumnus new business competition sponsored
by the universityʼs Coleman Entrepreneurship
Center, which added a social entrepreneur category
to the contest last spring. To see a “First Business”
video profile of DePaul student Jennifer Moran,
founder of GREENOLA, who won the contestʼs
first social entrepreneurship prize, visit
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0lOjChsEBg.
For more information on the annual New Venture
Challenge, go to cec.depaul.edu/
entrepreneurs and social service
organizations through SENO, the business
students gave SENO guidance in setting
up its bookkeeping system, filing its
taxes, revamping its Web site and creating
revenue-generating events. Block plans to
stay involved with SENO and says he can
imagine himself working with a similar
organization after he finishes his degree
“or just doing consulting work with small
businesses, helping them grow and
become sustainable.”
“I don’t think that businesses
outside the Fortune 500 as places to launch their careers. Increasingly,
they are considering smaller organizations with social missions, where
they can make a big impact and do work that is aligned with their values.”
A group of 14 DePaul MBA students who donated a week of their
winter break in New Orleans to help local businesses certainly would
fit this description. The third annual MBA group to go to the Big Easy
following the Katrina disaster, these students intend to gain experience
for themselves in solving business problems and also to create longlasting
change in the area. “The focus is not just on the immediate
benefit for these organizations, but on creating long-term working
relationships that will allow them to continually benefit from our trip
even after our students return to Chicago,” says Brean Deters, one of
the students who helped plan this year’s projects.
MBA student Dan Block, one of the trip leaders, found “a huge
entrepreneurship scene that didn’t exist five years ago” when he arrived in
necessarily have to focus on doing something socially responsible, but
that should be a component of what they do,” says Block. “I think it’s
extremely important that businesses don’t lose sight of their people—
and that’s not just their employers or their shareholders, but their
community.”
Roots of Music, a year-round program that provides free tutoring,
music instruction and instruments to New Orleans middle-school
children, is one of the organizations SENO and the students helped get
off to a promising start. Only a year and a half old, this not-for-profit
organization serves 103 children and has another 400 on the waiting
list. MBA student Brandon Brooks was part of the DePaul group
matched with Roots of Music. “We have people in the group from all
kinds of backgrounds, including finance. I have HR experience, so I can
help them from an administrative point of view,” Brooks says, but that’s
not the only reason he finds the relationship satisfying.
by Robin Florzak and Carol Sadtler

“I personally could relate to a lot of the kids that this program
helped. I come from an inner-city school. All through my elementary
school years, we had a very robust music program. I played the violin
for a few years, and it really helped me get through many difficult times.
So I realize the value of music. I think it’s a shame that a lot of programs
have been cut, because it [music] really helps. What I wanted to do was
give back—give my knowledge and know-how in order to help some
organization,” he says.
While in New Orleans, the MBA students helped Roots work on a
fund-raising plan and a realistic budget to show to potential donors. Derrick
Tabb, one of the organization’s co-founders, already is in the national
spotlight as one of CNN’s Top 10 Heroes of the Year. “We’re working
to get them prepared, so that when people say ‘Give us some metrics,’
they’ll be ready to go. I think they’re well on their way,” Brooks says.
When he finishes his MBA, specializing in human resources and
leadership and change management, Brooks says he will be open to all
kinds of opportunities in the for-profit sector. However, he says he
hopes “to be there for that organization for as long as I can and for as
long as they want me.”
Patrick J. Murphy, assistant professor of management in DePaul’s
Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, says this trend on the part of
younger people entering the work force is the result of nothing less than
a “sea change, involving one of the basic paradigms of business—that
there’s a forced trade-off between financial-value generation and socialvalue
generation. In the past decade or so, this trade-off is becoming
less ingrained in the way people view business.”
Murphy, who created and teaches a DePaul social entrepreneurism
class and joined a previous MBA class on a New Orleans service trip,
says that social media and other worldwide communication channels
used predominantly by younger people are making them “more aware of
the values they share with others and social inefficiencies that threaten
these values,” attracting them “to ventures that resolve social—and not
just market—inefficiencies.”
DePaul’s tradition of community service also inspires students, says
Block. “DePaul fosters the type of environment where students feel
Roots student musicians practice and perform.
empowered to make a difference. By truly embracing the Vincentian
values that the university preaches, DePaul’s administration has created
a culture in which students are encouraged to get involved and given
really great support for these kinds of projects.”
Net Impact Chapter President Henderson is part of a DePaul
student team that launched pilot projects to provide the Chicago
Family Health Center—a South Side clinic that serves patients
regardless of their ability to pay—with patient market research and
change management advice. He agrees that these partnerships benefit
all. “Students want to contribute to organizations that need help in
fulfilling their social missions, and, in return, they receive an
opportunity to gain experience and advance their careers through the
practical application of what we’ve learned in business school.”
f e a t u r e
25

Reunion 2009. See p. 31.

alumni news
P E R S O N A L LY P U T
“Besides our core connection of girlfriends,
Facebook has allowed us to link with 30 to 35 of us, including all the guys
and peripheral friends we had in school.”
Jennifer Pasko (L AS ’95). See p. 30.

A Life Outside Sports
Aself-described “country boy” from upstate New York,
Jonathan Harris (LAS ’95, MS ’00) makes an impact across
the nation preparing athletes for a life outside their sport.
Through the company he founded in 2004, AthLife, Harris
provides education, career transition and life-skill programs
for professional, collegiate and high school athletes.
He counts the National
Football League (NFL) Players
Association, the Atlanta Falcons,
the Major League Soccer Players
Union and more than 30
universities, including DePaul,
among his clients, but the real
impact of his work can be seen
through his advocacy for the value
of education.
“Education and financial
security are the keys to an athlete’s
successful career transition,” says
Harris. “Through AthLife, we help
professional sports players
complete their degrees and go on
to meaningful careers. We also
provide career and educational
resources to young athletes at the
collegiate and high school level.”
Harris has had countless
successes stories in his work,
including that of former linebacker
Derrick Thomas, a standout for the
Kansas City Chiefs and 2009
inductee into the Pro Football Hall
of Fame. With Harris’ help, Thomas was just two classes away from
earning his degree at the University of Alabama when he died from
injuries sustained in a car accident.
In May 2000, the university granted Thomas a degree
posthumously. “That was one of the defining moments for his family,
and it was fulfilling to be a part of it,” says Harris.
No stranger to athletics himself, Harris was a four-year letterman
in basketball at DePaul under Coach Joey Meyer. “I started as a walkon
player, just glad to be involved in the program any way I could,”
says Harris. While earning a bachelor’s degree in political science,
Harris honed more than his basketball skills during his college years.
“DePaul challenged me, helping me become a critical thinker and
changing how I viewed the world,” he says. “In my first job out of
college, I ‘cut my teeth’ at the National Consortium for Academics and
Sports Midwest Regional Office,
which was housed at DePaul.”
There, Harris worked on Project
Academics—a program designed
to help athletes from the NBA,
NFL and DePaul complete their
degrees while serving the
community. The program proved
to be so successful that the NFL
decided to bring it in-house and
asked Harris to run it as manager
of player development.
After four years with the
NFL’s program, Harris started
AthLife. Most recently, he formed
The AthLife Foundation—an
expansion of the National Football
Foundation’s Play It Smart
Program, a mentoring program
that helps high school football
players from economically
disadvantaged environments
successfully graduate from high
— Harris
school and go on to college.
Similarly, The AthLife Foundation
will help young athletes with
SAT/ACT preparation and encourage them to take responsibility for
their futures through lessons learned on the playing field, in the
classroom and in service to others.
Harris credits his time at DePaul for giving him the tools for
success. “The skills I learned in my master’s in public service
management program at DePaul have been very practical in running my
own business,” he says. “Building on the lessons I learned there, I feel
good when I go to bed every night, knowing that I’ve helped someone.”
Harris (second from right) with the former
student-athlete success panel at DePaul
University student-athlete orientation.
“DePaul challenged me,
helping me become a
critical thinker.”

Alumna Develops Products—and Scholarships
They say invention is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent
According to El-Sorrogy’s co-president, Becca Berkenstadt, now a
perspiration, and Rania El-Sorrogy, a 2007 graduate of
senior double-majoring in marketing and management (and also running
the College of Commerce and a member of the Coleman
Entrepreneurship Center’s advisory board, can certainly vouch
for that.
An academic standout during her years at DePaul—she earned her
degree in just three years—El-Sorrogy is driven by an entrepreneurial
spirit expressed early in life and nurtured at DePaul through the
Coleman Center. In fact, by the
time the Barrington, Ill., native
had enrolled as a freshman, she
had developed some 40-odd new
business ideas, all intended to
provide practical solutions to
everyday problems.
One of those ideas became
what was originally called Livre
Libre, a flexible bookbinding
system that allows users to
remove only the chapters they
need and leave the rest of the
book at home—a real boon to
students who have to haul heavy
her own social media consulting firm), S4E has distributed two $1,500
scholarships to entrepreneurial DePaul students over the past two years.
Since her graduation, El-Sorrogy has continued working to bring
her original bookbinding concept—now called Hooking Book—to
market, a process, she admits, that has taken a bit longer than she had
expected. She attributes much of the delay to a lack of money, but adds
that her shortage of cash may
have been a blessing in disguise.
“If I had had my druthers, I
would have licensed the product
three years ago,” she says. “But
now, for a number of reasons, I’m
glad I didn’t.”
For one, time has afforded
her the opportunity to network
with members of the textbook
publishing industry, the results of
which have materialized in the
form of four new patentspending,
a deeper understanding
of book manufacturing and
textbooks back and forth to class.
Her business plan for Livre
“I’ve gotten pretty good at
building prototypes with duct tape,
distribution and a better product.
It’s also sharpened her
Libre won the 2007 regional Idea
problem-solving skills and her
to Product collegiate entrepreneur
cardboard and Styrofoam.”
resourcefulness in stretching a
competition sponsored by the
University of Texas at Austin. Later
— El-Sorrogy
buck. “I’ve gotten pretty good at
building prototypes with duct
that year, she took first place in the DePaul New Venture Challenge with
the plan for a dance Web site called Pulzart.com, from which she had
hoped ultimately to launch a dance-oriented cable television network.
Along the way, she also sat on the boards of three nonprofit
organizations and, in 2006, founded and served as co-president of
Students for Entrepreneurs (S4E), a club devoted to raising scholarship
tape, cardboard and Styrofoam,” she jokes.
Her perseverance appears to be paying off, as Hooking Book has
generated an increasingly positive buzz within the industry. The attention
has spurred El-Sorrogy to redouble her efforts on the project by putting
other ventures on hold (Pulzart.com among them) and boosting her
revenue by taking consulting jobs on a project-by-project basis.
money for DePaul students interested in entrepreneurship. She became
interested in philanthropy after receiving a scholarship herself.
For more information, visit the Hooking Book Web site at hookingbook.com.
a l u m n i
29

Staying Friends
O n graduation day, I was elated that my studies were
Savage Timbo (LAS ’93), who moved to Boston shortly after graduation
complete, but I was a little fearful. I was hesitant to leave
and now lives in Chicago.
behind my DePaul community. Having been in a cap and
Now, we find our lives more complicated; distances have
gown before, I knew you always said, “Stay in touch,” but that
was easier said than done.
When I was handed my
diploma, I walked away with
something that isn’t touted in
the admissions brochures:
friendships. More than 10 years
later, I am happy to report that
the DePaul community that saw
me through four years of school
also has survived the ups and
downs of moves, careers,
marriages and kids. Just as we
increased, there are more things to do. This is probably about the
time most friendships would
start to dwindle, but we find
our connections getting even
stronger as technology has
come to our aid. “If it weren’t
for cell phones, e-mail and
our recent introduction to
Facebook, we couldn’t be as
close,” says Deana Evans
Segreti (LAS ’95).
“When Heather [Orlowicz
Neveu] created her account and
“Everybody had different backgrounds and different experiences but we
helped each other in school,
could relate to each other and that’s what bonded us together. Plus, we just
starting linking away, it gave us
we’ve helped each other’s careers
by writing résumés, furnishing
recommendations, offering career
advice and securing job
placements.
Taking part in DePaul
student organizations, including
the Greek system, honored me
with amazing friends. We came to
campus with various backgrounds
had a blast together.” Deana Evans Segreti (LAS ’95)
Track down your lost DePaul friends:
■ Search the DePaul Alumni Directory (search by name, year of
graduation, school, major and more) alumni.depaul.edu
■ Become one of more than 5,000 fans of the DePaul Alumni
Association on Facebook www.facebook.com/depaulalumni
■ Join the DePaul University Alumni Association LinkedIn Group—more
than 7,000 DePaul alumni are already members bit.ly/LinkedInDPA
■ Keep an eye on Class Notes and submit your own alumni.depaul.edu
an opportunity to chat all the
time,” says Jennifer Pasko
(LAS ’95). “Besides our core
connection of girlfriends,
Facebook has allowed us to link
with 30 to 35 of us, including
all the guys and peripheral
friends we had in school.”
Each day when we sign on
to Facebook, it is like visiting the
■
and majors, and completely
Attend Reunion Weekend and other DePaul alumni events
cafeteria again—commenting on
alumni.depaul.edu/events
different personalities, but, as
each others’ lives and offering
Jody Schwarz Cawley (LAS ’96)
says, “We shared awesome
experiences, and that surpasses
■ Follow @depaulalumni and individual graduates on Twitter
twitter.com/depaulalumni
support. Social networking tools
have allowed us to keep our
relationships strong and reconnect
everything.” We saw each other almost every day in the cafeteria,
supporting each other at each turn—through academics, jobs,
organizations and relationships.
“At first, it was DePaul’s attractive neighborhood that helped
us stay friends after graduation; we all stayed geographically close,”
explains Heather Orlowicz Neveu (LAS ’95). Many of us were
roommates after school, so it was easy to meet up after work as
with lost friends. Recently, our Facebook connections have
even allowed some of our friends to find that “missed romance.” As
those who use it know, social networking can play a unique role in
staying connected with the DePaul community you thought you left
behind. Remember when you had to leave the table to go to class, afraid
to miss the conversation? Well, if you’re not linked in, you are missing
much, much more.
singles living in the city.
Benson was a reporter for The DePaulia while she was a student. She is
However, we soon found ourselves scattered across the nation.
proud to write again for DePaul and adds, “It is not rare for my friends
But “whether a year or a week passed since we have seen each other, to contribute to one of my projects. This is a great opportunity for me
we all fall right back into place like no time has lapsed,” says Kristie to thank them.”
by Michelle Hoffman Benson (CMN ’96)

1
Reunion
Weekend 2009
2 3 4 5
7 8
6
9 10 11
More than 500 alumni and their guests reconnected and met new friends at Reunion Weekend 2009, held Oct. 16 to 18. Save the date now for Reunion
Weekend 2010, Oct. 17 to 19.
1. Alumni from The DePaulia, the universityʼs student newspaper, have a little fun with their group photo. 2. Alumni, faculty, staff and students tour the new state-of-theart
facilities in the 14 E. Jackson Blvd. building. 3. William Enright (COM ʼ59), Class of 1959 Reunion Committee member, offers a standing ovation following an address
by the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., at the Reunion Dinner and Celebration at The Drake Hotel. 4. Maryam Ngitami (COM ʼ05)(left) and Linda Quarshie (COM
ʼ04). 5. Celebrating his 76th DePaul University Reunion, Daniel Gardner (MUS ʼ33) represents the earliest class in attendance. He was one of nearly 150 graduates
inducted into the DePaul University Fifty Year Club. 6. The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., enjoys lunch with alumni. 7. DePaul study-abroad program participants
(from left) Maria Rodriguez (LAS ʼ99), Tim Shen (CDM ʼ92, MS ʼ94) and Diana Monarrez (CDM ʼ99). 8. DMaC, DePaulʼs menʼs a capella group, performs for alumni and
guests during the Reunion Weekend Brunch. 9. Todd Richards (CDM ʼ03) (left), Christelle Sheldon (LAS ʼ04) and Nam Vo (COM ʼ03) catch up during the Young Alumni
Reunion, held at Hub 51 for members of the classes of 2004 through 2009. 10. Patricia (Tel-Boïma) Robb (LAS ʼ59)(left) and Jan Thies Volkenant flip through a DePaul
yearbook. 11. DePaulia alumni (from left) Sam Perez (LAS ʼ90, MA ʼ97), Murrey Jacobson (LAS ʼ89), Amy Buczko (LAS ʼ88, MS ʼ96) and Donna Airoldi (COM ʼ88).
To see more photos from past Reunion Weekends, visit the photo gallery at alumni.depaul.edu/reunion.

tidbits
Nationwide Alumni Receptions Continue
Since September 2009, alumni have been gathering in cities
across the country for special receptions hosted by Patricia
OʼDonoghue, DePaulʼs vice president for Alumni Outreach and
Engagement. Since the first event in San Francisco, receptions
have been held in Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, New
York, Southern California, Texas and Washington, as well as in
several Chicago-area suburbs. Besides providing a chance to
network with fellow alumni and meet university leaders, these
receptions are an opportunity to share your ideas for future
DePaul activities.
Please see the events calendar on page 40 for dates and locations
of upcoming receptions.
The Vincentian Mission in Action
Save the date for Vincentian Service Day, Saturday, May 1, 2010.
This DePaul tradition brings together volunteers from throughout
the university community for a day of service. Last year, more
than 1,000 DePaul alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends
participated nationwide. This year could be even bigger. Let
Alumni Relations help you organize a Vincentian Service Day
project in your hometown.
For more information, contact the office of Alumni Relations at
800.437.1898 or dpalumni@depaul.edu for more information.
Giving Update
The following alumni gave their generous support to
DePaul University from July through October 2009.
$100,000 to $499,999
■ Helen C. Pekny (COM ʼ72), Helen & Frank Pekny “Success
through Scholarship” Endowment in Accountancy
$50,000 to $99,999
■ James J. OʼHagan (COM ʼ58, JD ʼ62) and Kevin M. OʼHagan (JD ʼ92),
James J. and Kevin M. OʼHagan Endowed Law Scholarship
■ James T. Ryan, III (MBA ʼ87), and Michelle Ryan, James T. and
Patricia D. Ryan Endowed Scholarship
■ Scott Steffens, CPA (COM ʼ89), Steffens Family Diversity Scholarship
■ Daniel Ustian (COM ʼ73), Sales Leadership Program
$25,000 to $49,999
■ Estate of Elsie A. Luhan (LAS MA ʼ45), Elsie Luhan Scholarship
■ Michael D. Episcope (COM ʼ94, MS ʼ08), Real Estate Center
■ Dr. Barry J. Epstein (COM ʼ67) and Paula L. Epstein, Dr. Edwin
Cohen Endowed Scholarship
New Planned Gifts
The following alumni indicated that they will support
DePaul University through a planned or estate gift.
$1,000,000+
■ John Haggerty and Maureen King Haggerty (COM ʼ56)
$100,000 to $499,999
■ Fran Ferrone (COM ʼ53)
32 a l u m n i

Chicago Gray Line President
Creates Scholarships
Francis “Fran” Ferrone (COM ’53),
president of Chicago Gray Line and
executive vice president of Chicago
Sightseeing Company, recently
created a $100,000 bequest to endow
scholarships for DePaul student-athletes
and College of Commerce students.
“I support DePaul because it’s a
great school,” says Ferrone. “I loved
my business education, which
provided me with all the basic information I needed as a businessman
in an environment of great camaraderie between faculty and students.”
The bequest continues Ferrone’s longtime support of DePaul. He has
been a member of the President’s Club, DePaul’s annual giving society,
since 1985 and served on the club’s board of directors for eight years.
While a DePaul student, Ferrone played basketball for legendary
DePaul Coach Ray Meyer. Meyer recruited Ferrone as a sophomore from a
small Iowa college and provided him with a partial athletics scholarship.
Following graduation, Ferrone served in the U.S. Army during the
Korean War, then returned to Chicago to manage the family business,
Chicago Sightseeing Company, with his brother, Donald Ferrone. The
company operates the Gray Line Tours and American Sightseeing
franchises in Chicago and a fleet of trolleys, charter buses and yellow
upper-decker buses.
Chicago Sightseeing Company recently became a DePaul Partner,
which is a unique campuswide partnership between the university and
corporate supporters.
For more information on making a planned gift to DePaul, contact Joel
Schaffer, assistant vice president of planned giving, at 312.362.5319.
For more information on becoming a DePaul Partner, contact Gregg Fort,
assistant vice president of corporate relations, at 312.362.5917.
giving.depaul.edu
How Scholarships Help Bridge the Gap
Scholarships and other forms of financial aid enable our
students to attend DePaul, but many still need help to meet
their educational costs. On average, full-time undergraduate
DePaul students who apply and are eligible for financial aid
—even after including personal contributions, as well as
scholarship and federal, state and institutional grants—
still face an average of $14,000 per year for uncovered
educational expenses in tuition, housing, books, etc.
Average
Cost Gap
($38,000
average total
cost)
Career Week and More
$14,000
remaining gap
$24,000
covered by student family
resources, grants and scholarships
contributions and financial aid
This February, DePaul hosted its third annual Career Week,
Feb. 13 to 21, which featured career-focused workshops, seminars,
information sessions and networking events for alumni, graduate
students and adult students. Several hundred alumni took
advantage of the opportunities to network and build their careerrelated
skills at events held throughout the week.
The Alumni Career Conference Call series continues to be a
success, with up to 50 alumni listening in and sharing ideas on
each monthly call. Recent topics have included “Networking with
a Purpose,” “Creating Work-Life Balance” and “Hot Jobs for
2010.” Alumni in the process of changing careers or considering
a transition are finding a great system of encouragement and
accountability by attending the Career Transitioners Work Group,
which meets regularly at the Loop Campus.
For information about upcoming career-related activities, be sure
to visit alumni.depaul.edu/career.
a l u m n i
33

class notes
Log into alumni.depaul.edu to read additional class
notes and to discover the many ways to connect
with other alumni and the DePaul community.
In the Spotlight
A certified public
accountant with more
than 20 years of
public accounting
experience, Scott D.
Steffens (COM ’89)
has been named a
partner in Grant
Thorntonʼs audit
practice. In addition to accounting
experience, Steffens has technical
expertise in providing audit and
specialized services to not-for-profit
organizations, as well as extensive
experience serving health care, family
office and corporate clients.
Steffens is a member of both the
American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants and the Illinois CPA
Society (ICPAS). He is licensed to
practice in five states. In 2009, he was
awarded the Outstanding Leadership
in Advancing Diversity Award by the
ICPAS for his creative and determined
actions to get more minority students
involved in accounting.
As a member of DePaulʼs School of
Accountancy alumni group, Ledger &
Quill, Steffens chaired the committee
that established the Robert M. Peters
Endowed Scholarship, which now
helps support two DePaul students
each year. Additionally, he led a
number of successful alumni giving
campaigns at Deloitte and is now
serving as a corporate giving
champion at Grant Thornton. “But,”
says Steffens, “even with all the work
that the firms have done, there is more
need than dollars available.” Last year,
he and his wife, Kelly, committed to
fund the Steffens Family Diversity
Scholarship at DePaul.
’50s
Nello P. Gamberdino (LAS ’50, JD ’59)
discusses his experiences as an Italian-
American soldier during World War II in the
documentary “5,000 Miles From Home.”
The film made its broadcast debut on
Chicagoʼs WTTW-Channel 11 in October.
Jim Distasio (CMN ’03) is one of the
producers and directors of the film.
Rosemary J. Schroeder (MUS ’54),
a concert pianist and soprano, was an
accompanist for two youth divisions during
the third annual Elgin Opera finals at the
Elgin (Ill.) Academyʼs Kimball Street
Theatre in summer 2009.
Kevin P. Murphy (LAS ’57, MA ’73)
published his second novel, “Out of Order.”
When he is not working on a new book, he
keeps busy as secretary and webmaster of
the Calumet Stewardship Initiative, serving
northwest Indiana and southeast Chicago.
As a result of that commitment, he and his
wife, Joann Podkul, were recognized as
Community Heroes by LISC-Chicago.
’60s
Reunion Years:
1960 and 1965
Dennis C. Zacek (LAS ’63) will be
directing the world premiere of “Jacob
and Jack” at Victory Gardens Theatre in
Chicago this spring.
Wallace B. Dunn (JD ’65), associate
judge of the 19th Judicial Circuit in Illinois,
was appointed to the advisory board of the
DePaul University College of Law Center
for Jewish Law & Judaic Studies.
Brigid (THE ’65) and Charles Gerace
(THE ’66) performed together in “Bread
and Salt” at Chicagoʼs Pritzker Theatre in
October.
Myrna L. Armstrong (LAS ’69, MS ’72)
is a professor and regional dean of the
Highland Lakes Campus of Texas Tech
University Health Sciences Center School
of Nursing.
’70s
Reunion Years:
1970 and 1975
Sister Cecilia Byrns, O.S.F., (MM ’70)
has been a piano teacher at the Holy
Family Conservatory of Music in
Manitowoc, Wis., for the past 48 years.
Over the years she also taught piano and
directed numerous choirs and folk groups
at different schools and parishes across
Wisconsin and Illinois.
Richard T. Crowe (LAS ’70, MA ’73),
owner and director of Chicago Supernatural
Ghost Tours, is the subject of a new
theatrical musical, “Brides of the Ghost
Hunter.” The show has a two-year run at the
Liars Club in Chicago. Additionally, he was
named a Kentucky Colonel, the highest
honor awarded by the Commonwealth of
Kentucky, and he was inducted into the
Showmenʼs League of America, an
organization founded by Buffalo Bill Cody.
Herschel Kahn (MBA ’70) was elected
to the board of directors and is the director
of Servidyne Inc. He also is managing
principal of HK Enterprises, a human
resources consulting firm.
Steven J. Connolly (JD ’71) is an
associate judge in the Circuit Court of
Cook County (Ill.). He was sworn into
service on Oct. 30, 2009.
James M. Lyons (JD ’71), a partner
at Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons LLP in
Denver, was appointed honorary consul
for Ireland. He served as a special advisor
to former President Bill Clinton on peace
initiatives and economic development
in Ireland and Northern Ireland, and he
previously was the U.S. observer to the
International Fund for Ireland.
Joseph A. Palermo (EDU ’71) retired
after 38 years with Berkeley School District
87 in Illinois. During that time, he spent
seven years teaching, 12 years as a
building principal and the past 19 years
as superintendent of schools.
Gail Silver (THE ’71)
filmed a part for the
movie “Flight” and
guest-starred as
Emma in the second
episode of the
paranormal spoof
Web series “PIT,”
which launched
on Halloween (partly in 3-D).
Samuel Fifer (JD ’74) was elected to the
board of the Better Government Association,
an independent, nonpartisan government
watchdog group in Chicago.
Suzanne M. Meyering (LAS ’74),
an independent coach and training
consultant, graduated in November from
the leadership training program offered by
the Chicago Conservation Corps. This fall,
she received a pilot project grant to teach
Chicago-area residents about low-cost
home weatherization.
Suzanne G. Olbrisch Hlotke (COM ’74)
has been involved with professional
journalism for more than 25 years. She
spent 10 years freelancing for the Chicago
Tribune and served as the suburban
correspondent for the Spanish-language
weekly Exito. She also wrote for The New
Catholic Explorer and the Joliet Catholic
diocesan newspaper. Currently, she is
working on a book of creative nonfiction.
34 a l u m n i

Timothy F. Fitzpatrick (LAS ’75)
graduated with a masterʼs degree in
strategy and national security studies from
the College of Naval Warfare, Naval War
College, in Newport, R.I., on June 19, 2009.
He currently works for the U.S. Army John
F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and
School in Fort Bragg, N.C.
Annette A. Eckert (JD ’76), the first
female circuit judge in the 20th Judicial
Circuit Court in Illinois, announces that she
plans to retire in 2010 after nearly 20 years
on the bench. She and her husband, Maj.
Gen. William Enyart, have two sons and
one grandson.
Elaine T. Matsushita (LAS ’76), a 30-
year veteran of the journalism field, has
launched a home- and design-centric
blogzine called “The Snoopster.” She
previously was a home and garden editor
with the Chicago Tribune.
Tom M. Pyra (MBA ’77), president of
Aberdeen Partners Inc., joined the board
of directors of Swedish Covenant Hospital.
He lives in Barrington Hills, Ill., with his
spouse of 32 years, Cathleen. The couple
has three grown daughters.
Dr. Robert L. Barkin (MBA ’78) was
promoted to professor of anesthesiology,
family medicine and pharmacology at Rush
University Medical College in Chicago. He
currently is the clinical pharmacologist of
NorthShore University HealthSystemʼs
Department of Anesthesiology Pain
Centers in Evanston and Skokie, Ill.
Thomas E. Patterson (JD ’79), partner
at the Patterson Law Firm in Chicago, has
written a new book, “Handling the Business
Emergency: temporary restraining orders
and preliminary injunctions.” The book is
written for lawyers and in-house counsel
who might need such emergency action
from a court.
’80s
Reunion Years:
1980 and 1985
Kevin P. Durkin (JD ’80), a partner at
Clifford Law Offices in Wilmette, Ill., has
become a fellow of the American College
of Trial Lawyers, a professional trial
organization in the United States and
Canada. He also was named by Irish
Magazine as one of the Irish Legal 100,
which recognizes top lawyers of Irish
descent throughout the United States.
He and his family live in Orland Park, Ill.
Charles Lynn Lowder (JD ’80) was
promoted to COO of Submarina Inc., a
San Diego-based food franchiser. A former
trial attorney, he also is a longstanding and
frequently invited guest speaker for several
major commands within the U.S. Marine
Corps (USMC). A highly decorated combat
veteran, he recently was profiled on the
USMC Web site.
Mark J. Valentino (LAS ’80), editor and
publisher of the Gazette newsmagazine
of Chicago, was honored by the McKinley
Foundation at the organizationʼs inaugural
Social Justice Awards Celebration in
Champaign, Ill., on Sept. 26, 2009.
David J. Kalainoff (MBA ’83) was
appointed president of reinsurance
operations at Max Capital Group Ltd.,
and will lead the companyʼs reinsurance
operations in Bermuda and Ireland. He has
been with Max Capital Group since 2003,
most recently serving as managing director
of reinsurance and executive vice president
and chief underwriting officer of casualty
reinsurance of Max Bermuda.
Valorie L. Hubbard (THE ’84) plays a
recurring character on the HBO television
series “True Blood” and guest-starred on
the FOX show “Glee.”
Carmen Lomellin (MBA ’84) was
nominated by President Barack Obama to
be an ambassador to the Organization of
American States. Her public service in
Washington began in 1993 when she
accepted a position as White House liaison
and senior policy advisor to the director at
the Office of Personnel Management. She
also worked in the Office of White House
Presidential Personnel and as an adviser
on Hispanic affairs for the White House
Office for Womenʼs Initiatives and Outreach.
Debbi Spencer (LAS ’84), a deputy
commander for nursing in the U.S. Army,
is serving her second tour in Iraq.
Bonnie Straight (SNL ’85) went to
Lithuania in 1992 to teach English at the
Lithuania Christian College (now LCC
International University). In 1996, she
enrolled in Regent University, Center for
Leadership Studies, in Virginia, to earn her
teaching credentials. She returned to
Lithuania in 2001 as the chair of LCC
International Universityʼs business
administration department. In 2004, Bonnie
earned her doctorate in organizational
leadership, and, in 2008, she returned to
her hometown of Fergus Falls, Minn. She
currently teaches online courses for LCC
International University and for Indiana
Wesleyan University.
Bryn E. Reese (LAS MS ’85) oversees
the fund development and marketing
department of the Girl Scouts of Greater
Chicago and Northwest Indiana. She
resides with her family in Oak Park, Ill.
Chet D. Grissom (THE ’87) gueststarred
on the ABC television series
“Castle.” The episode aired Oct. 5, 2009.
Jeffrey J. Kroll (COM ’87, JD ’90) was
featured in the October issue of Chicago
Lawyer magazine. The four-page feature
includes his journey from law school to
being one of the top personal-injury
attorneys in Illinois. He is a member of the
College of Law Deanʼs Council and the
DePaul University Board of Trustees.
Paul E. Stutesman (JD ’87) was reelected
to the executive committee of
the Michigan Judgeʼs Association in
August 2009.
Kelly Dolan (LAS MA ’88) is the
executive director of Susan G. Komen
for the Cure Greater Atlanta, a nonprofit
breast cancer awareness organization.
Deborah L. Borman (JD ’89) practices
creditorsʼ rights and consumer law at
Barnes and Thornburg LLP in Chicago.
She was an assistant editor of the latest
edition of the Journal of The Legal Writing
Institute and a panel contributing editor to
the ninth edition of Blackʼs Law Dictionary.
Mary B. O’Neill (LAS MA ’89, PHD ’96)
is an adjunct instructor in the philosophy
department at Western Connecticut State
University in Danbury, Conn.
’90s
Reunion Years:
1990 and 1995
Rosemarie S. Andolino (COM ’90) was
named commissioner of the Department
of Aviation by Chicago Mayor Richard M.
Daley in February 2009. Since June 2003,
she had served as executive director of the
OʼHare Modernization Program.
Joyce L. Carson (COM ’90) joined the
Chicago Urban League staff as CFO and
vice president of finance and administration.
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35

class notes
Andrew J. Cederoth (MBA ’90) is
executive vice president and CFO of
Navistar International Corp. He and his
wife reside in Naperville, Ill., with their
two children.
Richard T. Horwath’s (COM ’90,
MBA ’96) fourth book, “Deep Dive: The
Proven Method for Building Strategy,
Focusing Your Resources, and Taking
Smart Action,” was recently published by
Greenleaf Book Press. He is the president
of the Strategic Thinking Institute and
professor of strategy at the Lake Forest
Graduate School of Management in Illinois.
Lily M. Gulik (CDM ’90) joined Keane,
an IT services firm, as a senior director
responsible for new business development.
Terrance F. MacCarthy (JD ’90), a
longtime federal defender, was honored
twice in September. He received the
Federal Bar Associationʼs Frank J. McGarr
Award in honor of his outstanding service
as a lawyer serving the federal courts. The
Chicago Bar Association presented him
with its annual Justice John Paul Stevens
Award, which is given to attorneys who
exemplify a commitment to public service
and integrity.
Kathleen V. Kirk’s (LAS MA ’93) second
book, “Broken Sonnets,” was a finalist in
the Finishing Line Pressʼs chapbook
competition. She works and teaches a
poetry workshop at Babbittʼs Books in
Normal, Ill.
Daniel B. Shanes (JD ’93) published an
article in the Loyola University Law Journal
titled “Confronting Testimonial Hearsay:
Understanding the New Confrontation
Clause” in 2009. In 2008, he also published
an article in the Illinois Bar Journal titled
“The Crawford Confrontation Clause:
Governmental Involvement Key to
Testimonial Hearsay.”
Jeffrey C. Bruckerhoff (THE ’94) won
the MetroDC dance award for excellence
in lighting for his work on “Wunderland”
for the Washington Ballet.
Kathy Ford (COM MS ’94), a certified
public accountant and tax partner with Ernst
& Young, was named as one of six recipients
of the Illinois CPA Societyʼs fifth annual
“Women to Watch” awards in recognition of
her notable contributions to the accounting
profession and the development of women
as leaders in the field.
Johnna J. Adams (THE ’95) and
Joseph C. Basile (THE ’98) were
nominated for New York Innovative Theatre
Awards. Adams was nominated in the
Outstanding Original Full-Length Script
category for her work, “Angel Eaters.”
Basile was nominated in the category of
Outstanding Ensemble for his work with
the New York Neo-Futurists in “Too Much
Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.”
Kevin M. Howard (MBA ’95) was
promoted to vice president of North
American sales, marketing and service
for Provisur Technologies Inc., a global
provider of food processing equipment.
Tony W. Hunter (MBA ’95), president,
publisher and CEO of the Chicago Tribune
Co., joined the board of directors of
Metropolitan Family Services, a
Chicagoland human services agency.
Sister Johanna Marie Melnyk, O.S.B.,
(LAS ’95) made her solemn monastic
profession as a Benedictine nun at Turvey
Abbey in Bedfordshire, England. The
ceremony was conducted by the Bishop
of Northampton.
Alexsandra Sukhoy (CMN ’95) founded
Creative Cadence LLC, a content firm that
offers strategic marketing and communication
development to clients from a variety of
businesses. Also an author, she published
two of her novellas in October 2009.
Catherine A. Baumann (COM ’96) was
named partner at the Chicago office of
KPMG LLP, an audit, tax and advisory firm.
She is a certified public accountant and
a member of the American Institute of
Certified Public Accountants and the Illinois
CPA Society. She resides in Alsip, Ill.
David Behof (LAS ’96, MED ’00)
received the Frank J. Amato Excellence in
Coaching Award in October. The award is
presented annually to the Loyola Academy
coach whose outstanding performance on
and off the field represents the highest
traditions of Loyola Academy athletics as
well as the core values and ideals of the
schoolʼs Ignatian mission.
Donald B. Boyd (JD ’96) was admitted
to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court. He
also is admitted to the Illinois bar and the
Federal bar for the Northern District of
Illinois. He resides in Oak Park, Ill., and
operates a family law practice in Forest
Park, Ill.
John E. Durburg (MBA ’96), executive
managing director of CB Richard Ellis Inc.,
was appointed by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn
to the Illinois Finance Authority board of
directors on Dec. 14, 2009.
Paul R. Fine (CMN ’96, JD ’99) was
named policy director of the U.S. Senate
campaign of Jacob J. Meister. In July 2009,
he affiliated and expanded his litigation,
health care and commercial practice with
the real estate and bankruptcy firm of
J. Rose Quinn.
Erica H. MacDonald (JD ’97) was
appointed to the First Judicial District trial
court bench in the city of Hastings in
Dakota County, Minn. She has been an
assistant U.S. attorney for the District of
Minnesota since 2001.
Marisol Morales (LAS ’97, MA ’06)
and Maria E. Lopez (COM ’98) were
appointed by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn to the
Latino Family Commission, which advises
the governor and the Illinois General
Assembly on issues and opportunities for
Latino families. Morales is the associate
director of DePaul Universityʼs Steans
Center and a workshop facilitator with
L.J. Frame LLC. Lopez is the director
of Institutional Advancement for El Valor
and is a member of the Chicago Latino
Network and Latinos in Development.
Glinda J. Rawls (CMN ’97) is an
assistant professor at Western Michigan
Universityʼs Counseling and Testing Center.
Kathleen Lapacek (SNL ’98) has
been named vice president of business
development at Advocate Condell Medical
Center in Libertyville, Ill.
Brittney B. Saks (COM MS ’98) is
a personal financial services partner
in PricewaterhouseCoopersʼ Private
Company Services practice in Chicago.
She is a member of the American Institute
of Certified Public Accountants and the
Illinois CPA Society.
Gloria L. Gayle (SNL ’99) is the vice
president and branch manager of a
National City Bank location in Chicago.
She is also a board member of the
Chatham Business Association.
J. Andrew Moss (JD ’99) was elected
partner at Reed Smith LLP and is a
litigator in Reed Smithʼs Insurance
Recovery Group in its Chicago office.
Keith A. Skilling (MED ’99) and his
wife, Sarah, have created a Web site for
second- to seventh-grade students as well
as teachers, parents and homeschoolers.
The site, McFroo.com, focuses on poetry
and dog-rescue topics.
36 a l u m n i

Luisa F. Trujillo
(LLM ’99) is of
counsel at the law
firm of Cassiday
Schade LLP. Her
practice concentrates
on general tort
litigation with
extensive experience
in medical and professional liability cases.
’00s
Reunion Years:
2000 and 2005
Rebecca J. Allard (SNL ’00) is the
business manager of Park Ridge-Niles
School District 54 in Illinois.
Kristina M. Springer’s (LAS MA ’00)
first young adult fiction novel, “The
Espressologist,” was published in October
2009. She lives in a suburb of Chicago with
her husband, Athens, and their four small
children, Teegan, Maya, London and Gavin.
Brian S. Shallcross (LAS ’01, JD ’04),
associate at Clifford Law Offices in Chicago,
was selected as one of the Chicago Law
Bulletin Publishing Companyʼs Top 40
Under 40 Attorneys to Watch in 2009. He
resides with his wife and children in Lisle, Ill.
Patrick A. Clisham
(JD ’02) joined the
Phoenix-based law
firm Engelman Berger
P.C. He is a member
of the American
Bankruptcy Institute
and the Turnaround
Management
Association. In 2007, he received the Award
for Excellence in Public Interest Legal
Education from the U. S. District Court for
the Northern District of Illinois for his role in
developing and advancing the Credit Abuse
Resistance Education Program in Chicago.
Claire Reichstein (LAS ’02) joined the
Chicago-based law firm of Page-Fura P.C.,
as an associate attorney, focusing her
practice in the areas of export controls
and compliance, supply chain security
and import regulation.
Claudia B. Valenzuela (JD ’02), Beth
Johnson (JD ’05) and Kevin Curran
(JD ’06) were among just five recipients
of the 2009 Chicago Bar Foundation and
Sun-Times Public Interest Fellowships.
Each recipient will receive up to $50,000
in law school loan forgiveness.
William P. Byrne (CMN ’03) joined
Euro RSCG Chicago as corporate
communications manager.
Adrianna N. Collis (LAS ’03) is the
coordinator for the education and vocation
program at the Broadway Youth Center,
part of the Howard Brown Health Center
in Chicago.
Rosalee Dodson (JD ’03) is assistant
corporation counsel for the City of
Bloomington, Ill.
Casey E. Maday (MM ’03) won the
second trombone position with the Kenosha
Symphony Orchestra, the second trombone
position with the Des Moines Symphony
Orchestra and a one-year second trombone
position with the Cedar Rapids Symphony
Orchestra.
John A. Mueller (JD ’03) relocated from
Nashville, Tenn., to Buffalo, N.Y., where
he has joined the law firm of Harter
Secrest & Emery LLP. He works in the
firmʼs commercial litigation and bankruptcy
departments.
Kate A. Soczka
(CMN ’03) has joined
Chicago-based motion
design studio Mode
Project, as producer. In
this role, she oversees
client services,
bidding and project
management for all
design, and editorial and digital content
projects. She also manages Mode Projectʼs
marketing and business initiatives.
Cora I. Zink (EDU MA ’03) owns and
teaches at Renaissance Early Childhood
Center, a preschool in Mason, Mich.
Danish B. Iqbal (COM ’04) works for
Credit Agricole Structured Asset
Management in New York, where he
focuses on hedge fund managed accounts.
Mark E. Jourdan (CDM ’04) joined Arthur
J. Gallagher as a software developer.
Sarah G. Kustok (CMN ’04) is a full-time
reporter and anchor for Comcast SportsNet
Chicago.
John Redlingshafer (JD ’04), an
attorney with the law firm of Heyl, Royster,
Voelker & Allen in its Peoria, Ill., office,
has been elected president of the Illinois
Township Attorneys Association (ITAA). He
has served on the ITAA board of directors
since 2004 and is a past editor of the
associationʼs newsletter.
Carolyn K. Ross
(LAS ’04) was named
vice president of
operations for
Treatment Alternatives
for Safe Communities,
a criminal justice
advocacy and service
organization serving
the state of Illinois. She is a member of the
National Association of Addiction Treatment
Providers and the Illinois Alcoholism and
Drug Dependence Association.
Marsha H. Abrahams (LAS ’05) is
published in the book “The Republic of
Barbecue: Stories Beyond the Brisket,”
which includes first-person narrative stories
about the world of barbecue in central Texas.
Suzette R. Harris (SNL ’05) is finishing
her masterʼs degree in community
counseling at Roosevelt University. She is
a consultant in the research acquisitions
unit of Hewitt Associates in Lincolnshire, Ill.
Cherie A. Travis (JD ’05) was appointed
commissioner of animal care and control
for the City of Chicago, effective Dec. 1,
2009. Previously, she served as associate
director of DePaul Universityʼs Center for
Animal Law. She will continue teaching
animal law as an adjunct professor at the
DePaul and Northwestern law schools.
Evelyn L. Gentry
(LAS ’06) was
awarded one of just
two Baker & Daniels
LLP 2010 diversity
scholarships. Each
award consists of a
$10,000 scholarship
and placement in
Baker & Danielsʼ summer associate class.
Joseph Kearney
(LAS MS ’06), a
second-year law
student at The John
Marshall Law School
in Chicago, won
a $3,000 prize in the
schoolʼs Midwest
Regional Burnham
Plan 100 Student Writing Competition.
Andrew J. Kluth’s (MM ’06) musical
group, the AJ Kluth Quintet, released a
jazz album titled “Twice Now.” He currently
freelances with several creative music
projects in the Chicago area.
a l u m n i
37

class notes
Rena Prizant (COM ’06) was promoted
to column writer on TalentZoo.com.
Teissia Treynet (THE ’06) lives in Los
Angeles and has her own wedding and
event planning business.
Scott C. Oakes (MM ’07) is in his second
year as assistant professor of bassoon at
Wichita State University in Kansas.
John D. Quinn (CDM MS ’07) is the
founder and principal of Merrimac Solutions
Inc., in Lisle, Ill. He is responsible for sales
and customer relationship management,
vendor relationship management, and
project management of infrastructure and
security-related implementations.
Kristen J. Bartholomew (MED ’08) has
been hired as the cooperative education
and business law teacher at Urbana High
School in Urbana, Ill.
Ronald D. Hass (MBA ’08) visited North
and South Korea in September, the 100th
and 101st countries he has visited since
2000. He recently joined the Chicagobased
trading firm Global Electronic
Trading Co., and will be working on the
U.S. Equities trading desk there.
Belinda A. Suwe (JD ’08) is an associate
in the Salt Lake City-based law firm of
TraskBritt P.C., where she practices in the
patent prosecution group.
Brian K. Coyne (MED ’09) teaches U.S.
history at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Ill.
Anne K. Dunn
(CMN ’09) was
crowned as the 2009
Ohio Rose of Tralee.
She won a trip to
Ireland in August 2009
to compete in the
International Rose of
Tralee contest against
competitors from Ireland, Europe, Australia,
New Zealand and the United States.
Ari Q. Fulton (THE ’09) won the award
for Best Costume Design in the Black
Theatre Alliance/Ira Aldridge Awards, which
celebrate achievement by black artists
working in Chicago-area theatre and dance.
Adam N. Houk (MM ’09) won the second
trombone position with the Quad City
Symphony in Davenport, Iowa.
Kristina M. Panega (COM ’09) was
selected to participate in a “Top 10
Internship” at the Chicago office of
Northwestern Mutualʼs McTigue Financial
Group Network.
Joshua Saunders (MBA ’09) is the global
service line manager at UL Environment, a
subsidiary of Underwriters Laboratories that
provides third-party environmental services.
As part of his role, he is the program owner
overseeing all environmental verification
and certification services.
Abigail Smith (EDU ’09) is serving
as a teen advocate at Tundra Womenʼs
Coalition in Bethel, Alaska, through August
2010. The role is part of a year of full-time
volunteer service with Jesuit Volunteer
Corps Northwest.
Ronald W. Stewart (SNL ’09) is fire chief
of the Rolling Meadows Fire Department
in Illinois. He spent 21 years with the
department before being named fire chief
in 2006.
Fatih Takmakli (LAS MS ’09) wrote and
published four books of ship photography,
“Modern Cruise Ships from 1931 to 2008,”
“Ferries of the World,” “Modern Turkish
Ships” and “Tall Ships: The Ladies of the
Seas,” as well as a book of poetry called
“The Love of the Rose.”
Marriages & Engagements
Ammar A. Daraiseh (THE MFA ’96)
married Karen Kanas on March 26, 2009.
Jason E. Lohner
(CDM ’98,
COM MS ’07)
married Stephanie
Lee Schmoker on
July 31, 2009, at the
Danada House in
Wheaton, Ill. Jason
works on messaging
products at Motorola in Arlington Heights,
Ill., and Stephanie is a teacher. The couple
resides in Wheaton.
Leanne G. Medeiros (THE ’08) married
Patrick O’Neill (COM ’07). The couple
resides in the Washington, D.C., area.
Matthew C. Kallend (MUS ’04) and
Jennifer Rycerz (MUS ’03) married on
Aug. 8, 2009, in Lake Villa, Ill.
Jennifer L. Sherdan (LAS ’04) married
Matthew J. Gaspar on Oct. 4, 2008. She
researches international education for the
American Society for Clinical Pathology
and is pursuing her masterʼs degree in
higher education at Loyola University
Chicago. He teaches history at Winston
Campus Junior High School in Palatine, Ill.
Lauren K. Lansing (THE ’05) married
Joel Carranza on May 3, 2009, in Denver,
where they also reside. The couple met in
El Progreso, Honduras, at Teatro La
Fragua, which is run by Jack Warner
(THE ’78).
Jessica L. (Kuhr) Lewis (COM ’08)
married Ben Lewis on May 16, 2009. Their
wedding was held in Park Ridge, Ill., and the
couple honeymooned in Hawaii. Currently,
they reside in Chicago. Jessica is an audit
associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Births & Adoptions
Julia P. Berger
(MBA ’83) and her
husband, Scott,
welcomed a son,
Grant Walton, on
Sept. 19, 2009. The
family resides in Naperville, Ill. Julia is
employed by McDonald's Corp. and works
at its home office in Oak Brook, Ill.
G. Allen Barbee (MM ’86) wishes to
announce the finalized adoption of his son,
Donald Allen, on Oct. 30, 2009, in Marietta,
Ga. Donald was born on July 25, 1998.
Jennifer A. Devenyns (THE ’97)
and her husband, Andrew M. Finley
(THE ’97), welcomed their second child,
Annaliese Kathryn, on July 29, 2009.
Annaliese joins a big brother, Owen.
Mary C. Golosinski (THE ’99) and her
husband, Matt, welcomed their first child,
a daughter, Juniper Marie, this summer.
Mary is the Web editor for the Kellogg
School of Management at Northwestern
University in Evanston, Ill.
Wren D. Longno (THE ’99) and her
husband, Daniel, are the proud parents of
Januario Conrad, born on Jan. 10, 2009.
Wren is the marketing director of The New
Group, an off-Broadway production
company in New York City.
Robert A. Blease
(MED ’00) and his
wife, Cynthia (Mora)
Blease, are happy
to announce the birth
of their first child,
Santiago David, on July 31, 2009.
Cynthia V. Brundage (LAS ’00) and her
husband, Dr. Kyle Herrman, are proud to
announce the birth of their son, Charles
Herrman, on Aug. 1, 2009.
38 a l u m n i

Kevin M. Coyne
(JD ’00) and his wife,
Kimberly, are pleased
to announce the birth
of their first child,
Charlotte Ann, on
Aug. 28, 2009.
Linda H. Gressell
(MUS ’00) and her
husband, Christopher,
welcomed their son,
Noah William, on
July 7, 2009.
Altaira K. Plonis-
Barrezueta (LAS
’00) and her husband,
Ed, are pleased to
announce the birth of
their twin daughters,
Olivia Maria and
Aurelia Joyce, on
June 15, 2009.
Colleen (Fulara)
Saccotelli (LAS ’03)
and her husband,
Mike Saccotelli
(CDM ’02, MS ’05),
welcomed a son,
Enzo Fulara Saccotelli,
on June 15, 2009.
Melanie P. Persellin
(JD ’01), and her
husband, Matthew
Anderson, are proud
to announce the birth
of their first child,
Ryan Scott, on Sept. 14, 2009.
Norman Kwong
(MBA ’03) and his
wife, Caroline
Chang (MBA ’06),
are pleased to
announce the birth of
their first child, Chloe
Laiyee, on Sept. 2,
2009.
In Memoriam
Lord, we commend to you the souls of
our dearly departed. In your mercy and
love, grant them eternal peace.
Alumni
Bruno J. Pinkos (COM ʼ38)
Margaret M. Gray (LAS ʼ42)
Marie Webb (LAS ʼ42)
Irving J. Koppel (LLB ʼ43)
Alice H. Monroe (LAS ʼ45)
Joseph W. Bonner (COM ʼ47, JD ʼ53)
Mary Clare M. Sanders (LAS ʼ47)
John F. Boehme (COM ʼ48)
Isadore Goldberg (COM ʼ48)
Mary A. Murphy (MUS ʼ48, LAS ʼ52, MA ʼ53)
Norbert F. Gumbinger (LAS ʼ49)
Maj. Gen. Stephen S. Crane (COM ʼ50)
John C. Dugan (JD ʼ50)
Sister Ann D. Johnson, O.P. (EDU MA ʼ50)
Francis E. Napleton (COM ʼ50)
Carl W. Kuhn (COM ʼ51, JD ʼ53)
Anne U. Alt (LAS ʼ52)
Nora Clarke (LAS ʼ52)
James F. Hurley (LAS ʼ52, MA ʼ62)
Charles Harrison Jr. (LAS MS ʼ53)
Ronald C. Sobie (EDU ʼ56)
Sue M. Louik (MED ʼ57)
Justine I. Powles (JD ʼ58)
Richard E. Sajnaj (COM ʼ58)
Donald B. Carolan Sr. (LAS ʼ59)
Patricia M. Corcoran (LAS ʼ59)
Frank Ruehle (COM ʼ60)
Marcella Slattery (LAS ʼ60)
Richard S. Tafel (COM ʼ61)
John G. Licar Jr. (COM ʼ62)
Bob Rappe (COM ʼ62)
Mary L. Wabschall (LAS ʼ62)
Sister Marie Wiedner, O.P. (LAS MA ʼ62)
Ruby M. Bovik (LAS MA ʼ64)
Harold N. Hild (LAS ʼ64)
Raymond A. Spillman (JD ʼ64)
Rosemary McCloskey (LAS ʼ66, MS ʼ71)
Marion G. Novo-Gradac (EDU MA ʼ67)
Sister M. Rosita Renschen (MED ʼ69)
Michael B. Sheffey (MBA ʼ70)
Otto J. Tinzmann (LAS MA ʼ70)
Martin J. Grode (LAS ʼ78)
Robert J. Cassidy (SNL ʼ79)
James D. Jacobson Esq. (JD ʼ81)
Ruth Duckworth (LAS DHL ʼ82)
Edward A. Loss (JD ʼ85)
Thelma L. Matthews (SNL ʼ96)
Anne M. Plikaitis (CDM MS ʼ98)
Eric W. Utech (EDU MA ʼ98)
Thomas A. Dix (MED ʼ03)
Gayle E. Lighthall (SNL ʼ05)
Saule A. Sidrys (LAS ʼ08)
James P. Cyr (LAS ʼ09)
Friends
Richard W. Bruno
Carlos Hernandez Gomez
Marjorie Graff
Lisa Kerouac
Marianne C. Murphy
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 e-mail, 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
E-mail 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 Web site and
will be considered for inclusion in
DePaul Magazine.
David J. Greene (CMN ’05) and his wife,
Jeniz Greene (COM ’06), are pleased to
announce the birth of their daughter, Ava
Sophia, on Aug. 22, 2009.
DePaul reserves the right to edit class notes.
a l u m n i
39

alumni relations
Event Calendar
Visit alumni.depaul.edu or call 800.437.1898 for further information and to register.
Fees and registration deadlines apply to certain events.
Recent Alumni Events
April
April 3
Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Chicago Cubs
Chase Field
Phoenix
April 8
Faculty Exhibition Opening and Reception
DePaul University Museum
Lincoln Park Campus
April 14
Alumni Career Conference Call
Teleconference
April 15
Career Transitioners Work Group
DePaul Center
Loop Campus
April 17
Ski Day and Tailgate Party
Arapahoe Basin
Keystone, Colo.
April 20
Alumni Reception
Zen on 7, Hotel Metro
Milwaukee
April 22
Alumni Reception
Elizabeth F. Cheney Mansion
Oak Park, Ill.
April 29
Theatre Performance and
Post-show Discussion
“In the Red and Brown Water” by
Tarell Alvin McCraney (THE ’03)
Steppenwolf Theatre
Chicago
April 29
Alumni Reception
Venue TBD
Washington, D.C.
May
May 1
Vincentian Service Day
Various locations nationwide
40 a l u m n i
May 6
Young Alumni Etiquette Dinner
Venue TBD
Chicago
May 12
Alumni Career Conference Call
Teleconference
May 13
Blue 2 Blue Networking Event
Alumni Center
Lincoln Park Campus
This event will provide business-to-business
networking opportunities for new graduates
and alumni in the human resources field.
May 25
Annual Spring Concert featuring
the DePaul Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center
Loop Campus
June
June 8
Career and Networking Workshop
Venue TBD
New York City
June 9
Alumni Career Conference Call
Teleconference
June 10
DePaul Networking Night
Venue TBD
Washington, D.C.
June 16
Welcome to the Alumni Association
Reception
Venue TBD
Chicago
June 17
Career Transitioners Work Group
DePaul Center
Loop Campus
June 26
A Day at the Races
Arlington Park Racetrack
Arlington Heights, Ill.
A Show of Service
The Arizona Alumni Chapter celebrated the Thanksgiving
season by giving back to their community
through an alumni service project at the Society of
St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix. On Nov. 7, alumni and
their family and friends helped with food preparation,
meal serving and other tasks as part of a day of service
at the nonprofit organization.
History in Chicago
Nearly 100 Chicagoland alumni enjoyed the rich history
of Chicago at events held this past fall. The wine tasting
by Bottlenotes Inc., was held Oct. 1 at the stunning
Samuel M. Nickerson House—one of the most significant
residential buildings of 19th-century Chicago and home
to the Richard H. Driehaus Museum. In early November,
as part of the third annual Chicagoland Tour, alumni
traveled by bus to a number of Chicago landmarks,
including the Pullman neighborhood, the Stockyards,
Prairie Avenue, the World’s Columbian Exposition area
and the Bridgeport neighborhood. The tour was narrated
by author and Chicago history expert Irving Cutler.
Save the Date!
May 17 to 23, 2010
DePaul University is planning a week of activities and
events to celebrate the announcement of a historic
university initiative. Mark your calendars now and keep
an eye on DePaul University news—more details will be
announced in the coming weeks.

Thank You,
Fran Ferrone,
FOR BEING A TEAM PLAYER
Fran Ferrone (COM ’53) never forgot the thrill
of playing basketball for Coach Ray Meyer with
DePaul Athletics Hall of Famers Ron Feiereisel, Jim Lamkin and Bato Govedarica. He also never forgot his
gratitude for the partial athletics scholarship that brought him from a small Iowa college back to his
hometown and an excellent education at DePaul University.
Since then, Ferrone has supported DePaul at every turn, including as a 25-year member of the President’s
Club, DePaul’s annual giving society. Recently, Ferrone created a $100,000 bequest to endow scholarships for
DePaul student-athletes and College of Commerce students.
“Quite simply, DePaul is worth supporting,” says Ferrone, who is president of Chicago Gray Line. “I hope my
gift helps students, as well as the university, as it continues to grow in all areas and provide a great education.”
Learn how you can support DePaul University and our students at giving.depaul.edu.

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“L ove is inventive
unto infinity.”
St. Vincent de Paul