Accolades – below are news and notes from our alumni, faculty, staff, and students. We are proud of all the amazing accomplishments by our Neag family. If you have an accolade to share, we want to hear from you! Please send any news items (and story ideas) to shawn.kornegay@uconn.edu.

PROGRAMS/DEPARTMENTS

Husky Sport was one of 13 organizations recognized with a 2011-2012 Extended Schools Hours Grant Program from the Hartford Public Schools. Extended School Hours Programs are intended to provide opportunities for academic improvement, which include the provision of instructional services to help students meet state and local performance standards.

STUDENTS

Janine Firmender and Lisa Rubenstein won doctoral student awards at the NAGC conference.

Kendrick Henes, a Secondary Science major, has been invited by Liz Buttner of the State Department of Education to serve on the committee reviewing drafts of the Next Generation Science Education Standards – the only student pre-service teacher to serve in CT and nationally.

Nicole LaPierre and Melanie Rodriguez would like to thank everyone who “liked” the photo on Facebook of Clark Elementary and Middle Academy. They won the “We Give Books” contest and will now receive a library of books for Clark School in Hartford! They are renovating and reopening the currently closed school library in Clark for their Masters Inquiry Project and these books will help immensely. They are appreciative of the support.

ALUMNI

Maurice Doolittle (B.S. Physical Therapy ‘65) has retired after working as a physical therapist in five different states. He is looking forward to his retirement in Louisiana with his wife, Sunnie.

Craig Esposito (Ph.D. Educational Administration ‘10) won a spot on the Town of Stonington’s school board.

Theresa (Dombrowski) Forbes (B.S. Elementary Education ’97, MA Curriculum and Instruction ’98, 6th Year in Educational Psychology ’05) and Sean Forbes announce their marriage on July 16, 2011, in Manchester, Conn. Theresa is a teacher in Glastonbury, Conn.

Greg Fuller (B.S. Sport Science ’97) and Nicole (Perras) Fuller ’98 (RHSA) announce the birth of their second child, Evan, on July 15, 2010. He joins older brother Jackson, 4.

Carol (Ewing) Garber (B.S. Recreational Service Education ’75, MA Sport and Leisure Studies ’83, Ph.D. Sport and Leisure Studies ’90) is associate professor of movement sciences and education at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, N.Y. She serves as vice president of the American College of Sports Medicine.

Allen R. Jones Jr. (B.S. Physical Therapy ’87) opened Dominion Physical Therapy & Associates’ seventh office, in Norfolk, Va. Dominion specializes in sports, work, and personal injuries.

Peter MacGillis (B.S. in Exercise Science ’93, MBA ’98) was featured on the Travel Channel’s “Man v. Food Nation” on Aug. 18, 2011.

Louise Tarnowski Plack (B.S. Elementary Education ’84, MA Special Education ’90) is a special education teacher at Marlborough Elementary School and executive board member of Pocketful of Joy, a nonprofit organization that provides health care and education opportunities to children in northern Tanzania. From January to March 2011, she worked in Tanzania with educators at the local and district level to improve education for primary and secondary schoolchildren.

Lois Greene Stone (B.S. ’55) and her husband, Dr. Gerald E. Stone, celebrated 55 years of marriage and welcomed their 15th grandchild this spring. Lois, a writer and poet, is syndicated worldwide.

James Zullo (B.S.’66) retired as a high school basketball coach in New York with 528 wins.

Dr. Marianne Kennedy, Southern Connecticut State University’s Interim Provost, was selected as the Lead Campus Administrator until Southern’s new President, Dr. Mary Papazian, arrives on February 1. During her 17-year career as a faculty member, department chairwoman and administrator at Southern, Dr. Kennedy has attained a wealth of institutional knowledge and earned a reputation as an active scholar, an excellent communicator, and an effective collaborator.  Dr. Kennedy earned her Ph.D. in special education from the University of Connecticut and joined Southern’s Communication Disorders Department in 1994.

William J. Pesce (BS sports and leisure studies, ‘85) was named chief of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain. Pesce has specialized experience in the areas of neurologic and orthopedic rehabilitation, spasticity management, electrodiagnosis, musculoskeletal disorders and pain management. He joined the hospital in 1993 and has been an attending physiatrist since 2006. Pesce is also an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

Race issues, the role of the media in 21st century politics and public perceptions of President Barack Obama’s communication style are all examined in a recently published book by Dr. Mark P. Orbe, Western Michigan University professor of communication. “Communication Realities in a ‘Post-Racial’ Society: What the U.S. Public Really Thinks About Barack Obama” was published in November by Lexington Books. The first book its kind, it draws from a large national qualitative data set generated by 333 diverse participants from 12 different U.S. states across six regions and provides comprehensive, in-depth coverage of the similarities and differences that exist among diverse groups of everyday Americans.

Several English Education Neag graduates and students traveled to Chicago in November to participate in the 2011 Workshop of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English.  Ricki Ginsberg (Rockville High School, Vernon) and Tiffany Smith (Parish Hill High School, Chaplin) presented a breakout session entitled, “Forging Ahead: Proposing, Designing, Teaching and Defending a High School Young Adult Literature Elective.” Ricki also serves as an elected Director on the ALAN Board.

• Kelly Thurston (Francis T. Maloney High School, Meriden) and Ethan Warner (O.H. Platt High School, Meriden) shared their expertise in a panel, “Using YA Literature to Bridge the Gap for Male Readers.”
• Cleo Rahmy (Portland Middle School), Emily Hernberg (New Canaan High School), and Claire Peyser (Westwood High School, MA) examined the challenges faced by teachers new to the profession in their presentation, “Young Adult Literature As A First-Year Teacher: A Second-Year Retrospective.”
• Danielle King (East Hampton High School) chaired an author panel entitled, “Middle grade titles: In those in-between spaces.”
• Elizabeth Stagis (East Hartford High School) was named the 2011 recipient of a Gallo Grant awarded to a talented early career teacher for attendance at his/her first ALAN Workshop.
• Mike Hurst (West Hartford Middle School) and Marisa Ives (UConn) were both first-year attendees who represented UConn well with their passion and professionalism.

FACULTY

Lawrence Armstrong and Richard Schwab were elected as Faculty At-Large to UConn’s University Senate. Schwab was also elected to the Faculty Review Board.

Robin Grenier was elected to the Academy of Human Resource Development Board for a three-year term. AHRD is a global organization made up of, governed by, and created for the Human Resource Development (HRD) scholarly community of academics and reflective practitioners and has over 500 members worldwide.

Jason Irizarry was one of two featured speakers at the CSDE and SERC 2011 Black & Hispanic/Latino Male Statewide Forum, held in December at Central Connecticut State University.

Tom Kehl was awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Training by the National Association of School Psychologists. He will be recognized at the NASP National Awards Lunch in February.

Professor Michael Young has been elected to the Board of Education for the Town of Ellington.  Congratulations to Mike.

Odvard Egil Dyrli, emeritus professor of curriculum and instruction in the Neag School of Education, was elected to a third four-year term on the Board of Trustees of Messiah College, Grantham, Pa (www.messiah.edu). Dyrli serves on the executive council, chairs the education committee, and is on the steering committee for re-accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.