Graduates on the Go

1960s

Roy Student (B.S. '64)--yes, that's really his last name--may have hit the jackpot in more ways than one. As president of Applied Management Strategies, a global consulting company specializing in the planning, marketing, and sales of gaming products, he has contributed to the growth of the casino industry for the past 35 years. Roy and his wife, who live in Las Vegas, have two sons, Glenn and Darren, and two grandchildren, Tali and Ben. "My main hobby is building companies," says Roy, who has been listed in Who's Who in the Gaming Industry. He says he firmly believes that if you put your mind and talents to work, you can accomplish anything. If nothing else, at least in Roy's case, what happens in Vegas gets printed in your alumni magazine.

Although his degree was in applied physics, James J. Stefanich (B.S. '68) has pursued a career in public service as the Town of Oyster Bay Receiver of Taxes on Long Island, N.Y. He is serving his third four-year term at the post. He and his wife of 37 years, Kathleen Bannon, have three sons: James Jr., Kevin, and Thomas. They also have four grandchildren: Thomas, Kaitlyn, Patrick, and Tristan.

Ken Black (B.S. '69) started out as an architecture major at NYIT, then switched to computer science after a professor helped him realize that architecture just wasn't for him. "After almost 40 years in the computer industry, I look back and owe him a debt of gratitude. He really cared and took a personal interest." Ken recently retired after serving as an information technology director for a commodity trading company, where he spent the last 12 years developing back office systems to support international trading of energy and agricultural commodities. He now works as a part-time Web developer and is about to launch a culinary Web site.

1970s

Jerome Leslie Eben (B.S. '71) is the immediate past president of the American Institute of Architects' New Jersey chapter (AIA-NJ) and was honored at the organization's annual awards dinner this past January. As president, he worked with the AIA-NJ's more than 2,000 members to address some of the challenges facing the architectural industry. Jerome lives in West Orange, N.J., where he operates his own architecture and planning firm.

Johnpaul DePasquale (B.S. '72) works for JM Family Enterprises in Deerfield Beach, Fla., as a senior client advocate. Married to wife Rita for 34 years, Johnpaul has two daughters, Sue Anne and Christina, as well as two grandchildren, Isabella and Danny. As a former Manhattan campus student, Johnpaul recalls going to the Russian Tea Room "every now and then" after classes. His advice to NYIT students and alumni? "Take full advantage of every opportunity that crosses your path." He says he is proud of the respect that NYIT has earned in the business and scientific communities.

As the chief compliance officer of Zurich Financial Services, Martin Feuer (B.S. '72) helps companies in North America deal with the regulatory challenges of the insurance industry. He enjoys collecting stamps, bicycling, golfing, and traveling, and along with his wife, Susan, has a son and daughter. Martin cites two professors who had a major impact on his education: "Professor Morrison was a great mentor and provided me with objective guidance that led me to business, while Professor Federman was a great source of support when my father suddenly passed away during my senior year." Martin recalls hanging out in the Student Activity Center (known as the "Dairy Barn" back then) where he worked part-time. Of his NYIT education, he says that his alma mater "taught me that life is a continuing learning experience that never ends ... NYIT taught me how to learn."

Chester Schnepf (B.F.A. '72) is finishing a Yale University fellowship in Gothic literature that focuses on Edgar Allen Poe and J. Sheridan Le Fanu. He is the professor and chair of the Department of Humanities at Gateway Community College in New Haven, Conn., where he oversees 20 full-time and 170 adjunct professors.

After two tours of duty in Vietnam serving in the U.S. Air Force, Jerry Bieber (B.S. '73, M.B.A. '77) graduated from NYIT and then earned a Ph.D. in industrial management from Newport University. During the past three decades, he has worked as an industrial engineer and controller in the aviation, banking, and consulting industries. Today, Jerry is enjoying retirement with his wife of 37 years and their two children.

"Whatever you choose to do professionally, don't do it for the money; do it because you enjoy it," says certified public accountant Joseph Ambroso (B.S. '78). "If you really enjoy something, you will excel at it and be much better than your competition. Your natural enthusiasm will show through to your bosses, the people you work with, and your clients." Joseph worked for companies such as Albrecht Viggiano Zureck & Co., Ernst & Young LLP (when it was Arthur Young), and Earley Kielty & Associates. In 1995, he launched his own practice to provide accounting, tax, financial, and human resources consulting services. Three years later, he co-founded Lucerne Partners, a New York City-based executive search firm.

Diane Dolan (B.S. '79) also believes in following your passion when it comes to choosing a career. "When you are happy, everything just falls into place. There are just some things in life that money cannot buy." She works as a comptroller for First Fidelity Mortgage Group on Long Island, where she lives with her husband, Jim, and children Christopher, Matthew, and Ryan.

1980s

Zeev Rubinstein (B.S. '80, M.B.A. '82) is the new chief executive officer of Tadiran Telcom, where he will oversee the company's North and South American operations. Zeev, who was chief executive officer of LEADCOM Integrated Solutions, also has held executive positions at several other global telecommunications companies.

Angelo Garcia III (B.S. '82) is the principal industrial hygienist for Future Environment Designs Inc., a training and consulting firm that solves clients' asbestos, mold, and indoor-air quality problems and concerns. He lives in Huntington, N.Y., and is married to Veronica Hansen (B.S. '83, M.S. '87). They have a daughter, Alyssa, who is planning to become an architect. Angelo recalls his days at NYIT as being among the best of his life. "I met my wife, played football, and hung out at the Pub. I held several leadership positions as a member of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and the Life Sciences Club, and I was a member of the Student Government Association." Last year, he reunited with many of his former football teammates at an alumni event held at the Old Westbury campus.

Rita Auerbach (M.B.A. '83) is a financial planner who sells insurance and investment products to businesses and individuals. Her home company is New York Life, but she is also an adjunct professor for City University of New York, where she teaches various management and business courses. "I advise my students to think about networking for the future. Your biggest assets may be the people you know and with whom you have developed a positive relationship."

For Theresa Capriotti (D.O. '83), the most rewarding part of her job is working with the next generation of nurse practitioners. She teaches human pathophysiology at Villanova University, where she is a clinical associate professor in nursing/medicine. Theresa,
who is writing a textbook on pathophysiology and a book on diseases commonly encountered by nurses, often speaks on topics such as disease processes and teaching. "My research focuses on undiagnosed conditions in special populations of patients, such as unrecognized clinical depression in elderly residents of a nursing home and undiagnosed hypertension in corporate executives while in the workplace."

Dennis Mele (B.Arch '83) is principal of Oyster Bay Drafting and Midtown Preservation in Oyster Bay, N.Y. and recently visited the Old Westbury campus to recruit students at the annual architecture and design job fair held at NYIT's de Seversky Center. He and wife Wendy live in Westchester County, N.Y., and are the proud parents of two daughters.

After getting her degree at NYIT, Patricia Galloway (M.B.A. '84) went on to earn a Ph.D. in civil engineering from Kochi University of Technology, Japan. Today, she is the CEO of Seattle-based Nielsen-Wurster Group, which provides engineering and management services to companies around the world. Patricia enjoys being a role model to young women interested in engineering. "Always continue to learn and to credential yourself," she advises. "Always continue to keep up to date in whatever you do. And always travel." Patricia is married to Kris Nielsen (a mechanical engineer and lawyer) and has four stepdaughters and a border collie. She enjoys hobbies such as horseback riding, hiking, reading, and writing, and also engages in what she calls "extreme travel." Patricia has visited 100 countries, as well as the North Pole and South Pole.

Virginia Gambale (B.S. '84) is managing partner of Azimuth Partners LLC, a strategic and advisory firm in the field of technology and data communications solutions that she founded in 2003. She has held senior management positions at firms, including Merrill Lynch, Marsh & McLennan, Bankers Trust, Alex. Brown, Deutsche Bank, ABS Ventures, Workbrain, and DB Capital Partners. Virginia also has served on public and private boards, including JetBlue, Motive, Workbrain, and IQ Financial. Virginia was named one of Forbes' Great Communicators in 1999 and one of the top three CIOs on Wall Street in 1997.

Tom Grunbeck (B.S. '86) is the senior vice president of sales and marketing at Safe Flight. He has been with the company for more than five years and has 25-plus years of experience in the aerospace industry. Grunbeck has held managerial positions in Barnes Aerospace Group, B.F. Goodrich, and Gulfstream Aerospace Technologies.

Patricia McMahon (B.S. '86) has been appointed deputy site manager of Integrated Systems (Eastern Region and Bethpage, N.Y.) at Northrop Grumman. She is also the vice president and IPT leader of the Electronic Support and Attack Solutions division and the market segment leader for the Information Operations/Electronic Attack unit. Patricia serves as chair of the Town of Babylon Planning Board and is on the board of Long Island Software and Technology Network (LISTnet). In 2006, Patricia received the Babylon Women in Government award and LISTNet's Diamond Award. In 2007, she received the NYIT Alumni Federation's first-ever Women in Technology honor at the Brett Kaufman Memorial Alumni Awards Dinner and was named to the Long Island Business News' "Top 50 Most Influential Long Island Women Hall of Fame."      

After starting her career in television production, Randy Friedman (B.F.A. '87) worked as a massage therapist and personal trainer. Shortly after, a friend introduced her to golf, which has become her passion ever since. She moved from playing to teaching, and hasn't looked back. Randy is owner and founder of Life Mind Power LLC, a motivational service in Connecticut that she says helps others "get out of their own way."

Charlotte Bethune-Fisher (A.A.S. '88, B.S. '90, M.B.A. '06), founder of Selden, N.Y.-based financial consulting firm Sapphire Consulting, recently finished her first book, The Sistah's Hook-Up: Savvy Networking Tips. She also enjoys traveling, knitting, and teaching herself to speak Spanish and Japanese. Her favorite NYIT memories involved meeting people from different cultures and learning about the global marketplace.

Jennifer Schofield-Lake's (B.F.A. '88) story is about being open to opportunities. First a communication arts major, Jennifer changed degree paths after hearing about an internship in the New York State Assembly. Years later, as a federal agent, she traveled all over the globe and met with world leaders. Today, she conducts fraud investigations of government programs. "Being a special agent for the last 10 years, I feel like my career is meaningful, interesting, and satisfying. My journey is a lesson that a college experience at NYIT can, if you are open and receptive to it, lead to pursuing and accomplishing the dreams you may never even knew you had."

Marshall Sponder (M.A. '89) is a senior Web analyst at IBM.com, where he fulfills a number of different roles and duties, including serving as the analyst for IBM's Virtual Business Center in the online virtual environment Second Life. He also writes and contributes to several blogs, including his primary site, webmetricsguru.com.

1990s

Carrie Moyer (M.A. '90), an artist who combines feminist and art historical references in her paintings, has had several well-received solo exhibitions in New York City, where she is based. According to a February 2007 New York Times review of her "The Stone Age, New Paintings" show, "the sense of looking all the way through to the back of her paintings and deep into history is very impressive."

Being able to follow a project from inception to construction is what Paul Ligniti (B.Arch. '91) loves most about his work. He is a senior architect at DMJM Harris, which specializes in transportation and infrastructure design. Paul remembers Education Hall in Old Westbury as the ideal setting in which to study architecture. "The privacy and views of nature helped me focus on my work. My favorite place was the lawn, which was perfect for taking breaks between classes ... I enjoyed the company of fellow classmates as we discussed art and architecture," Paul says. He and his wife, Jeanette, have been married for four years and have a son, Stefano, who was born last August.

At the time of his graduation, 20-year-old Robert Buchalter (M.A. '92) was among the youngest people to graduate from NYIT with a master's degree. Today, he is the director of development at New York-based production company Hurricane Entertainment. Robert helped create and produce the dating show, Shipmates, and served as the senior producer of The Judge Mills Lane Show. He was also the supervising post producer of the MTV shows Room Raiders and Short Circuitz. In addition, he worked as a talent coordinator for David Letter_man's production company, Worldwide Pants Inc.

Clinical psychologist Susan Mendelsohn (M.P.S. '92) is an expert in the treatment of eating disorders, body image issues, relationship counseling, and stress management and has a thriving private practice in Cincin_nati, Ohio. She was named the Cambridge "Who's Who Professional of the Year in Clinical Psychology" for 2007 and has just authored her first book, It's Not About the Weight: Attacking Eating Disorders from the Inside Out. Susan has served as a consultant for eDiets.com since 1998. Her hobbies include tennis, reading, jogging, and writing.

No two days are ever alike for Robert Cucchiaro (B.F.A. '94), senior producer of CW11 News at Ten for WPIX-TV in New York. As a student, he loved visiting the Old Westbury campus and would always spend time at the radio station and the LI News Tonight newsroom. It was during his college days that he met his future wife, Tricia Porfidio (B.F.A. '96). The couple has two little girls, Olivia and Leah.

Program Specialist Rob Dixon (B.T. '94) works for Motorola Inc.'s technical operations team. Rob lives in Bay Shore, N.Y., with his wife and two daughters, and fondly recalls NYIT's Higher Education Opportunity Program. "I owe a great deal of gratitude to [Director] Frank Rodriquez and [Assistant Director] Pete Messina, who are partly responsible for making me a positive member of society. They were there to guide me in the right direction when things could have gone a different way."

Amy Patricia Meade (B.A. '95) currently works as a freelance technical writer. A member of the Sisters in Crime mystery writers organizations, Amy is the also the author of two Marjorie McClelland period mysteries, Ghost of a Chance and Million Dollar Baby. The third in her series, Shadow Waltz, was published in April 2008.

Svetlana Oreshkin (B.S. '96) is the budget officer for the Vera Institute of Justice Fiscal Department. Svetlana has more than 10 years of experience in general and nonprofit accounting. Prior to joining the Vera Institute, she was senior accountant at Safe Horizon Inc.

Andrea Wilkinson Ohle (B.S. '96, M.A. '99) has come full circle--careerwise, that is. After working for several years in the public relations industry, she began a new career as a psychotherapist. As the communications director of the Counseling Corner for Marriage and Family Therapy P.C. of Rockville Centre and Manhattan, N.Y., she is now combining both worlds and skill sets, practicing marriage and family therapy while handling public relations, advertising, event planning, and marketing initiatives for the firm.

Ralph Sepe (B.S. '97) helps raise funds for various New York children's charities in the metropolitan area through his non-profit organization, the Sepe Foundation. He is also a partner at benefits consulting firm Chernoff Diamond & Co., where he oversees operations in the firm's health and welfare division. Additionally, Ralph is directly responsible for cultivating and managing many of Chernoff Diamond's client relationships. In 2005, he was named one of the five most influential people in human resources by Long Island Business News and was inducted into the publication's prestigious "40 Under 40" class of rising stars on Long Island. Last year, Ralph was the recipient of the Business Leadership Award at NYIT's 2007 Brett Kaufman Memorial Alumni Scholarship Awards Dinner.

Joseph Lamantia (D.O. '99) has treated patients of all ages--from three days to 103 years! He lives with his wife, Christine, and their three children, Carmine, Theresa, and Angelo Joseph, with another on the way soon. Joseph is an active member of the Indiana County Medical Society and has been a delegate to the Pennsylvania Medical Society for three years, where he has worked to adopt resolutions relating to smoking, obesity, and fair insurance practices.

"There are no perfectly carved careers. Make your own little niche with all your collective talents and experiences." Such healthy advice comes from nutrition coordinator Vilasi Venkatachalam (M.S. '99), who works in the Integrative Medicine Program at Morristown Memorial Hospital/Atlantic Health in Morristown, N.J. After earning his master's degree at NYIT, he remained to complete a dietetic internship in the cancer nutrition program. "NYIT was my first home in the United States. All my early memories and my dearest friendships were formed here."

2000s

Youssef Eldakar (B.S. '01) and his wife, Eman, welcomed their first daughter, Habiba, to the world in January 2008. Youssef is project manager for the International School of Information Science Research Center at Bibliotheca Alexandria in Egypt (the 21st-century version of the Library of Alexandria). He is in charge of the school's Internet archive project, which complements the largest Internet archive, based in the Presidio in San Francisco, Calif. Youssef also worked for Bibliotheca Alexandria's book digitization operation, for which he wrote a universal digital book encoder.

When Edison Venegas (A.A.S. '01) recently returned to his native Ecuador for a visit--the first since he was 11 years old--he was surprised to see how the country looked through adult eyes. The poverty, especially among children, took him aback. So he and other family members in the United States set about trying to make a change. Along with contributing their own money, the family raised $20,000 to build a computer center where children can study during the day and adults can take classes on weekends. Edison hopes to partner with a non-profit organization to continue these efforts.

Joanne DeFeo (M.B.A. '02) is the comptroller of Nassau Community College. She credits her degree from NYIT as the reason for her career success, noting that, "While I was going to NYIT, I learned to work with people who had different ideas and cultures. Now in the real world, I am able to meet with people from many walks of life and work toward a meeting of the minds. NYIT is not only an academic environment but it also supplies a real-world experience that translates well after graduation."

Michael Sciara (B.S. '02, M.S. '03) has joined JRS Architect P.C. as a licensed architect and project manager in the firm's Mineola, N.Y., office. While he was an NYIT student, Michael won several design competitions, and since graduation has gained experience managing commercial, educational, healthcare, and church projects. He is also an adjunct professor of architecture at Farmingdale State College.

Joseph P. Romeo (B.S. '05) has been promoted to sales representative within the Consumer Imaging Group (CIG), Special Account Sales Division, at Canon U.S.A. A member of the CIG marketing services department since March 2006, he has been instrumental in coordinating advertising and marketing in various trade publications. He enjoys traveling throughout the United States to promote the Canon brand and sends a special thank you to School of Management Professor Abram Poczter, Ph.D., for all of his support during his years at NYIT.

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