Alumni News

1970s

Dave Blazek ’79 (1975-77) recently won a Reuben Award for Best Newspaper Panel Cartoon in America from the National Cartoonists Society. Blazek was honored for his cartoon, Loose Parts, which is nationally syndicated by The Washington Post. The Reuben Award is the “Oscar Award of cartooning” and Blazek’s work was recognized by hundreds of the world’s best cartoonists, illustrators, graphic novelists, and Hollywood animators. He recently published his seventh book of cartoons— Quirky Rectangles of Mirth. Blazek and his wife, Eileen ’79, live in Valley Forge. LoosePartsComic.com

1980s

Greg Green ’88, who earned a degree in Business Management, has been working in healthcare sales and management for twentytwo years. He is currently a professional services executive at Abbott Diagnostics Division in Seattle, Wash., where he resides with his wife, Grace, and twin daughters, 16. He has fond memories of playing basketball under Coach Doug Zimmerman and recalls witnessing the team’s transition to an NCAA Division III level sport. [email protected]

1990s

Jeffrey S. Lavelle ’93 is the chief toxicologist/mass spectrometry scientist for LabSolutions LLC in Atlanta, Georgia. He was recently board certified as a toxicological chemist by the National Registry of Certified Chemists. He reports that he frequently travels to Pittsburgh to visit family and lifelong friends, some of whom he met at Behrend. [email protected]

Dr. Angel R. Otero ’95, professor of accounting at the Florida Institute of Technology, recently published a university textbook, Information Technology Control and Audit, 5th Ed. Otero has more than twenty years of experience in the areas of public accounting and auditing, information technology consulting, and information systems auditing. He worked for Deloitte for more than ten years and attained the position of senior manager before leaving to teach. [email protected]

2000s

Kara Holden Onorato ’00 is the CFO at Unity Health Care in Washington, D.C. She is an active volunteer, advocate, and fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in memory of her daughter, Sonny, who passed away in 2017 at age 20 from acute myeloid leukemia. [email protected]

Carmen Cole ’02 was named the Sally W. Kalin Librarian for Learning Innovations for the Penn State University Libraries. The threeyear appointment is an endowed position for an early-career librarian. Cole, who earned a degree in Creative Writing at Behrend, is the information sciences and business liaison librarian at University Park. [email protected]

Ross A. Lockwood ’03, a certified public accountant, was elected president of the Northwestern Chapter of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants for the 2019-20 fiscal year. He is the controller for the Wesbury United Methodist Retirement Community in Meadville, where he resides. [email protected]

2010s

Jeremy Gurdak ’11 was recently promoted to manager, audience and context, at Oracle Data Cloud in Broomfield, Colo. He leads a team of seven who help strategize advertising campaigns for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, Amazon, Spotify, Nextdoor, and Pandora using Oracle’s audience and context capabilities. [email protected]

Nicholas Jones ’12 reports that his degree in Mechanical Engineering has helped him climb the ladder at USG Corporation, also known as United States Gypsum Corporation, where he is a gypsum process technical manager. He learned about an opening at USG through the Nittany Lion Career Network and has been promoted several times in the past six years, each time moving to a new city. He recently built his own home near Chicago, where he plans to stay for the foreseeable future. [email protected]

Abram Pleta ’13 recently earned a Ph.D. in automotive engineering from Clemson University. His dissertation was on alternative toolpath methods in the milling of nickelbased superalloys. He is the research and development manager at Five Star Carbide Holdings in Greenville, South Carolina. [email protected]

Mitchell Wilston ’14 (2010-12), who earned a degree in English, works at PNC Financial Services, where he designs and launches split tests and personalization campaigns for PNC’s digital properties. He resides in Pittsburgh. [email protected]

Kyle A. Peterson ’15 recently started a new job as an associate attorney at the Pittsburgh law firm of Willman and Silvaggio, LLP. Peterson, who earned a degree in Political Science, and his wife, Brittany, live in Pittsburgh. [email protected]

Matt Colpoys ’18 was recently named an assistant coach for the Johns Hopkins men’s basketball team, the Blue Jays. Colpoys, who earned a degree in Finance, led the Behrend Lions to a 42-14 record as a two-year starter before an injury late in his sophomore year ended his playing career and began his coaching career. He resides in Baltimore, Maryland. [email protected]