May Graduates; Alumni Updates; Faculty & Staff News

Under blue skies and with a light breeze cooling the air, Class of 2017 graduates and their families gathered early Sunday morning, May 21, in the South Beach area for the Commencement Ceremony. Led by bagpipers, the graduates processed, by collegium, from the robing area in Fox Hall ,past the library and dorms, and into the massive tent to hear speakers mark the occasion and to receive awards and diplomas.

Eckerd College President Donald R. Eastman III presents
PEL graduate Lora Vineberg '17 with the Irving G. Foster Award.

Among the people honored during the ceremony were PEL seniors Lora Vineberg and Gladys Hall, both of whom majored in Business Management. 

Vineberg was awarded the Irving G. Foster Award given to a PEL graduate who has demonstrated overall academic achievement. The award is named in honor of the late Irving G. Foster, Professor Emeritus of Physics, who played a major role in the design and inception of the Program for Experienced Learners.

Eckerd College President Donald R. Eastman III presents
PEL graduate Gladys Hall '17 with the
David and Blanche Colgan Memorial Prize.

Hall received the David and Blanche Colgan Memorial Prize given to a PEL graduate who has demonstrated extraordinary determination and perseverance in achieving a solid academic record and who exemplifies the spirit of life-long learning. The award is provided through the generosity of Trustee Mary Miller (PEL '97) in memory of her parents, David and Blanche Colgan.

PEL graduate Richard Schomp '17 (Organizational Studies)

Scroll below to see a list of the graduates, some of the images from the ceremony, and graduating PEL senior Teresa A. Stewart's Commencement speech.

Or read all the speeches and view all 608 images of the Sunday morning ceremony in the College's online photo album by going to the 2017 Commencement page.

Please note: A number of PEL seniors who plan to graduate in August 2017 also participated in the ceremony. The list below includes only students whose official graduation date falls in August 2016, December 2016, or May 2017.

courtesy of SweetClipArt.com

Congratulations!!!

Warmest congratulations to these PEL students who completed their programs of studies and graduated during the 2016-2017 academic year.

May 2017

Christine M. Aderhold, Media & Film Concentration

Carla Baker, Concentration in American Culture/Minorities Studies

Steven E.Ballinger (D), American Studies

Jonathan Booker, Human Development

Jessica M. Bossen (D), Business Management

Edward J. Bozeman (HH), Business Management

Samantha Browning, Humanities

Dawn R. Bryant, Human Development

Sylvie Cantin (D), Human Development

Angelina R. Capobianco (HH), Business Management

Stacey Clarke, Human Development

Charles D. Claybaker (H), Business Management

Kim C. Cobham, Human Development

Ludy Cole, Business Management

Michell L. Cox, Organizational Studies

Craig A. Cranston (D), Humanities

Christel Dykes (D), Business Management

Lorraine Eastman, Organizational Studies

Teresa R. Flournoy, Human Development

Davie Gill, Sports & American Culture Concentration

Kenneth L. Grimes, Business Management

Gladys Hall, Business Management

Megan L. Halloran, Business Management

Molly C. Henry (HH), Concentration in American Culture & Society

James Hill (D), Business Management

Joshua P. Hunziker (D), Business Management

Kristen L. Inoa (D), Business Management

Quandala Johnson (HH), Management

Christopher J. Kelaher, Organizational Studies Concentration

Michelle J. Kiekenapp Nelson (HH), Creative Writing Concentration

Jamie E. Klempner, Organizational Studies Concentration

Benjamin Labay, Business Management

Joshua T. Lewis (H), Business Management

Bradley Lowe, Business Management Concentration

Rachel A. Luna. Human Development

Catherine M. McBride (HH), American Studies

Dorice M. Michalik (D), Business Management

Timothy J. Mineo, Business Management

Joseph C. Mobilio, Business Management

Yadira L. Montes Rivera (HH), Humanities

Courtney Niedens, Business Management

William Morelli (D), Organizational Studies

Tashauna L. Nobles, Business Management

Kelly L. Pickering (D), American Studies

Katherine C. Quinn, Global Business Concentration

Stephan L. Ralph, Business Management

Jared B. Rishel (D), American Studies

Tanya M. Rotter (H), Humanities

Jeanne A. Salvo (D), American Studies

Richard Schomp, Organizational Studies

Kelly A. Schooley, Humanities

Christopher Shaun, Business Management

Emily P. Strickland, Concentration in American Culture & Communication

Zachary C. Thompson, Visual Arts

Jeanette I. Ventrone (HH), Human Development

Theresa G. Vess (HH), Business Management

Lora D. Vineberg (HH), Business Management

Caitlin Q. Wells (HH), Human Development

Shirley Wells, Business Management

Kimberly Whitford (H), Human Development


December 2016

Yvonne C. Comeau, Humanities

Ricky Counts, Human Development

Priska Green (HH), Business Management

Charissa A. Jackson, Human Development

Jason W. Malpass (HH), Creative Writing 

Peter Marer (HH), Business Management

Bonnie L. Mason, Creative Writing

Daniel McGlone, Business Management

Andrew J. O'Connell (H), Humanities

Daryl L. Osburn (H), Human Development

AKM R. Rahman, Business Management

Natalie Ricketts, Human Development

Stephen Sabella (HH), Business Management

Sandra Singleton (D), Human Development

Teresa A. Stewart (HH), Human Development

Cecilia Walker, Business Management
Lisa Washington, Human Development

August 2016

Richard P. Anglewicz (D), Business Management Major
Sherry Ball (H), Organizational Studies Major
Robert M. DiPalma (D), Humanities
Melanie R. Ducane, Human Development
Aaron Flinn (D), Business Management Major
James C. Fort, Environment & American Culture Concentration
Rashad Lewis, Business Management Major
Regina A. Perkins (HH), Organizational Studies Major
Thomas J. Pyche, Business Management Major
Monica L. Taylor (HH), Business Management Major

 HH - High Honors; H - Honors; D - Distinction

 

Alumni News

Edward G. "Teddy" Baldwin '99 (American Studies) was inducted into the Eckerd College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa this last week as an alumni member. Baldwin earned his Juris Doctor degree from George Washington University Law School in 2003 and currently is a partner in the Baker McKenzie law firm in Washington, D.C., where his practice focuses on international arbitration, transactional litigation, sovereign immunity issues, and enforcement of judgments and awards.

Dean Lloyd Chapin, president of the Zeta Chapter of Florida, noted that Phi Beta Kappa is the nation's oldest and most prestigious academic honor society.


Renee Hamad '10 (Human Development), a retired concert pianist and philanthropist, was honored in April at the eighth annual Sertoma Sarasota Celebrity Roast. Sertoma is an international service organization whose primary projects help people with speech, hearing, and language disorders. Local chapters develop other projects based on community needs. The event honoring Hamad benefited Sertoma Kids Speech Therapy, which provides speech/language therapy for Sarasota area children in the Sarasota area with communication challenges regardless of their families' abilities to pay. An article in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune noted that Eckerd College adjunct professor Tom Honsa was one of the participants roasting Hamad, who was the first woman the Sarasota chapter has so honored.

Remembering . . .

William Sanford Scott III '95 (Business Management Concentration) of Venice, Fla., who died April 1, 2017. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/heraldtribune/obituary.aspx?pid=185003555

Faculty / Staff  News

Professor Sergei Novikov was honored recently for 25 years of service to Eckerd College. Novikov earned his Ph.D. from  Moscow State University – known as “the Russian Harvard” – with a degree in International Political Economy and served for a time as one of a group of economic advisors to Mikhail Gorbachev. Novikov teaches courses in international business and in Russian culture.

Reunion Weekend 2017: PEL alumna honored by Women's Resource Center; Event photos, and more!

(L-r) Eckerd College President Dr. Donald R. Eastman III,
Maureen Donovan-Dobiesz '02, and Professor Catherine Griggs at the
Awards Breakfast during Alumni Weekend in March 2017.
Photo courtesy of Eckerd College

Reunion Weekend 2017 was filled with activities, and PEL people participated in many of them. To view photos from each of the events, click on the link above, choose an event album, and scroll through the images. Click here for PEL Alumni Reception photos.

PEL Alumna Honored

Maureen Donovan-Dobiesz '02 was presented with a Women's Resource Center Professional Achievement Award at the Awards Breakfast during Alumni Weekend last month.  Donovan-Dobiesz graduated with a B.A. in American Studies from Eckerd College’s Program for Experienced Learners.  After graduation, she began working at Healthcare IQ, a data analytics company empowering hospitals across the country by providing advanced analytics to create efficiencies and innovative solutions. As the EVP of administration, her critical thinking, management skills and leadership have guided the company through a period of exponential growth.

Donovan-Dobiesz also is the director of Phoenix Venture Philanthropy Foundation, which invests in and supports nonprofit organizations that deliver significant social impact, environmental awareness and education. Phoenix provides business mentoring and leadership insights.

In awarding Maureen Donovan-Dobiesz the Women’s Resource Center Professional Achievement Award, the College recognizes her commitment to women’s professional advancement by hiring qualified women. She is an early supporter of Emily’s List, which works to elect women to positions in local and federal government. Donovan-Dobiesz also supports Eckerd’s Environmental Film Festival, an annual week-long program that has greatly enhanced environmental awareness within the community.

PEL Alumni Reception  

 

(l-r) Donna Littell '75 and Dana Cozad '69

PEL people filled the Lewis House atrium and porch on Saturday, March 10, at the PEL Alumni Reception. Organizers Angie Jones '12 and Donna Littell '75 greeted guests as the sounds of live piano and guitar background music drifted through the area and a slide show played pictures culled from recent and not-so-recent PEL events.

After a time of catching up with friends and colleagues -- and of enjoying the plentiful hors d'oeuvres -- PEL Executive Director Amanda Hagood welcomed the group and thanked the alumni gathered for the many ways they enrich the campus community, the local Tampa Bay area, and the world at large. Hagood recognized a number of PEL people people present for their years of service to the program: Dana Cozad '69, who worked in PEL in many administrative and teaching positions from PEL's beginning in 1978 and continuing to teach until just recently; Margret Skaftadottir, PEL's associate dean of faculty, who has been with PEL since 1992; Patti Cooksey '97, who has worked in various positions in PEL since 1997; Alaina Tackitt '08; and long-time faculty members Professors Catherine Griggs, Naveen Malhotra, and Tom Krzesinski.

Connie Murphy '08 shared how PEL reshaped her life.

"Everyone has a PEL story to share," Hagood noted before inviting Margret Skaftadottir to introduce the evening's speaker, Connie Murphy '08, who currently works as a program manager for the Veterans Health Administration.

Murphy shared how her PEL experience radically reshaped her life, causing her to consider a career in government rather than the private sector where she had been working. Murphy went on to earn a Master of Public Health degree from Emory University in Atlanta and worked for the Center for Disease Control for a time until returning to the St. Petersburg area.

PEL people filled the tables in the atrium at Lewis House
and in the porch area.

 Following a short time of remembering, many in the gathering moved over to the James Center for dinner.

To see images from the 2017 PEL Alumni Reception, click HERE:

To see the slide show of archive images, click HERE.

Other Events

Jake Halterman '09 attended the Dean's Luncheon on the Arts
on Saturday afternoon . . .

. . . and the PEL reception and evening dinner, with his wife, Paula.

Donna and Clint Day '07 enjoyed both the PEL reception
and the dinner . . .

. . . as did Diahan and Bernard "Roc" LiLavois '10.

Professors Naveen Malhotra and Patti Cooksey '97
with Bernard "Roc" LiLavois '10

Alumni Weekend photos are courtesy of the College and were taken by local freelance photographer Lisa Presnail.

Cheers -- and see you all next year!

PEL Students win Enactus USA award; Alumni News; Faculty/Staff news

A team of PEL students is moving on from a regional competition to the national level; we share how two PEL alumnae have impacted their communities since they graduated more than 30 years ago; and we congratulate a PEL staff member -- who also is a PEL alumna -- on a major accomplishment!

(l-r) Tonya Zalick, Yolanda Carter, Stephanie Krebs, and Stacy Sansoucie
work on their Enactus project earlier this Spring.

PEL students Yolanda Carter, Stephanie Krebs, Stacy Sansoucie, and Tonya Zalick, this year's Eckerd Enactus chapter president, teamed up to enter the 2017 Enactus USA competition and are now eligible to enter the national competition being held in Kansas City in late May. PEL teams under the guidance of Professor Naveen Malhotra have represented Eckerd College in regional competitions and at some national conferences since 1995.

Students begin the projects in Malhotra's Students in a Free Enterprise (SIFE) course, then take on the Enactus challenge as an extra-curricular project after the course has ended.

The outside (back on the left, front on the right) of the portfolio created by the 2017 Eckerd PEL Enactus team

Enactus--Entrepreneurial Action Us--is an international organization involving more than 48,000 undergraduate and graduate students; the Enactus USA group "connects student, academic and business leaders through entrepreneurial-based projects that empower people to transform opportunities into real, sustainable progress for themselves and their communities" according to the organization's website.

Last year, Enactus USA offered a virtual competition where teams submitted video presentations, along with the portfolio. This year,the virtual competition included a live Q&A session after the video presentation. Teams are judged on their effectiveness in conducting a needs assessment and in seeing opportunity, in taking entrepreneurial action, and in enabling progress by measuring direct and indirect outcomes that empower people and improve livelihoods in a sustainable way. Teams also receive feedback on their ability to communicate their projects and the results.

This year, the Eckerd PEL team's projects included teaching preschoolers about recycling and taking them on a visit to the local recycling center, helping Boys & Girls Club members and Girl Scouts create marketable hydroponic gardening kits to improve people's access to fresh vegetables, helping college students and recent graduates connect with employers offering paid internships in the IT field, and helping senior citizens market their artwork within the local community.

The inside of the 2017 Eckerd PEL Enactus team's portfolio

Alumni News

Kathie Tanner Erwin '82

Kathie Tanner Erwin '82 (Concentration in Society, the Media, and Politics), who subsequently earned an M.A. in Counseling from Liberty University, and an Ed.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Sarasota (now Argosy University), is an Associate Professor and Associate Coordinator of MA Counseling Programs for Regent University. Erwin also is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, National Certified Counselor and National Certified Gerontological Counselor. Recently she was awarded a Diplomate in Clinical Mental Health for Geriatric Counseling.

She has contributed to a number of journals and has written seven books, including Group Techniques for Aging Adults: Putting Geriatric Skills Enhancement into Practice, 2nd Edition (Routledge, 2013) and an ethical thriller, Taylor Kendall: Evil Inc.( Par Press, 2010).

Erwin has volunteered as a Field Traumatologist with Green Cross Academy of Traumatology serving in India, Trinidad and Ukraine. She returns this fall for third season as guest lecturer in the Nord Mag Gerontology Institute at University of Iceland.

Recently, Erwin was named to the Fulbright Specialist Roster for a three year tenure. As a Fulbright Specialist, Erwin will serve with an international university on the project she designed for training geriatric group therapists, developing community based group programs and education in trauma related issues for older adults.

 Erwin is the mother of twin daughters (one currently an Eckerd College student) and four grandchildren. She has previously served as President of the Eckerd Alumni Association and as Alumni Trustee.

Note: [04/25/17] This section was edited to include the information just released about Erwin's being named to the Fulbright Specialist Roster.

Virginia J. Scott '85 at the PEL Alumni
Reception in March

Virginia J. Scott ’85 (Human Resources) is retired after a long and fruitful career in the social services fields. Scott began teaching in the early 1960s, earned an A.A. in 1964 in Early Childhood Development from Gibbs Jr. College, which later became part of St. Petersburg Jr. College, taught in the 1965 pilot program for Head Start in St. Petersburg, and became a program manager for Pinellas County Head Start. By 1974 she was training others in her work with the Pinellas County License Board for Children's Centers and Family Day Care Homes.

Eventually she became a program consultant responsible for staff development and training with the Juvenile Welfare Board -- JWB minutes from the mid-1980s show the Board recognizing Scott several times for her work -- all while she was serving on various boards and committees, while she and her husband were raising two children, and while she was taking courses at the University of South Florida. Scott transferred those credits to Eckerd College and finished her degree in the PEL program.

"I had taken courses at USF in psychology, criminology, and education. PEL allowed me to combine those interests and earn a degree in Human Resources," Scott explained when she visited the office recently. "That degree opened doors I never expected, and I ended up working in all three fields."

In 1994, the Florida Bar recognized Scott's service
on the Grievance Committee of the Sixth Judicial Circuit.

Scott worked for several years as a training specialist at the USF/Florida Mental Health Institute's Professional Development Center in the Department of Mental Law and Policy. In 1990, Scott was invited to testify before the Racial and Ethnic Bias Commission of the Florida Supreme Court as to the importance of sensitivity training for state workers. From 1991-1994, Scott was appointed to the Florida Bar's Sixth Judicial Circuit "D" Grievance Committee, which investigated complaints against lawyers and reported findings to the Florida Supreme Court. Scott also served as a lay member on Bayfront Medical Center's Institution Review Board.

Over the years, Scott also has been actively involved in various community and national organizations including Hospice, Congregations United for Community Action, the National Black Child Development Institute , and the National Council of Negro Women. In 1991, Scott was invited by the director/manager of Tyrone Square Mall to lead mall managers and security officers in cultural sensitivity training sessions to help serve mall patrons more effectively and to prevent confrontations from escalating. Eventually, Scott traveled throughout the state, training employees at other malls owned by the DeBartolo Corporation.

Scott became a family life and community educator with Family Service Centers, Inc., and, later, a guidance counselor at Academy Prep Education Center before retiring in 2011.

Scott quoted former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's statement (2013):

"The essence of America ... is an idea: That you can come from humble circumstances and do great things. That it doesn't matter where you came from but where you are going."

Note: 04/24/17 This section was edited to correct the name of the college from which Scott received her A.A., to clarify Scott's work at Tyrone Square Mall, and to add an image of the award Scott received from the Florida Bar.

 

Faculty/Staff News

Congratulations to Alaina Tackitt '08 (Humanities), who successfully defended her dissertation titled "(Age)ncy in Composition Studies" this past month. Tackitt has earned her Ph.D. in English, Rhetoric and Composition at the University of South Florida, Tampa, and will graduate in May. Tackitt had previously earned an MLA (Master of Liberal Arts). Tackitt is the academic advisor at the Tampa campus and is PEL director of writing services.