2 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

Send your letters to: universitymagazine@ysu.edu or YSU Office of Marketing Communications, One University Plaza, Youngstown, OH 44555.YSU MAGAZINE WANTS TO

HEAR FROM YOU!

Letters.Letters.youryour

YSU President Randy J. Dunn

YSU Board of Trustees Chair Sudershan K. Garg Vice Chair John R. Jakubek, ’79 Delores Crawford, ’68 David C. Deibel, ’75 James B. Greene Harry Meshel, ’49 James Roberts, ’70 Leonard Schiavone Carole S. Weimer, ’89 Secretary Franklin S. Bennett Jr. Student Trustees Eric Shehadi Melissa Wasser ———————————

Magazine Editor Cynthia Vinarsky

Public Information Ron Cole Officer

Executive Director of Mark W. Van Tilburg Marketing Communications

Layout Design Artist Renée Cannon, ’90

Photographer Bruce Palmer

Graduate Assistant Harry Evans

Director,Office JacquelynLeViseur,’08 of Alumni and Events Management

Sports Contributor Trevor Parks

Youngstown State University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association.

Youngstown State University – A Magazine for Alumni and Friends (ISSN 2152-3754), Issue 18 online edition, Fall 2013, is published quar-terly by the YSU Office of Marketing Communications, One University Plaza, Youngstown, OH 44555. Periodicals Postage Paid at Youngstown, Ohio, and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Youngstown State University, Office of Marketing Communications, One University Plaza, Youngstown, OH 44555. Direct letters to the editor, comments or questions to the address above, call 330-941-3519 or email universitymagazine@ysu.edu.

Youngstown State University is committed to a policy of nondiscrimi-nation on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, or identity as a disabled veteran or veteran of the Vietnam era, in respect to students and/or to applicants for employment, and to organizations providing contractual services to YSU.

8-001

O N T H E COVERThis colorized image of honeycomb materials from an automotive catalytic converter, magnified 20,000 times under a scanning electron microscope in Ward Beecher Hall, is part of research being conducted by Ruigang Wang, assistant professor of Materials Chemistry. Read about Wang’s work in our cover story, starting on Page 8, and how YSU’s role is expanding regionally along the spectrum of Molecules to Manufacturing.

In this photo from the Penguins’ contest against Morehead State in September, YSU senior tailback Torrian Pace takes a handoff from senior quarterback Kurt Hess. The Penguins won 67-13 and set a school record in that game with 718 yards of total offense.

FALL 2013 1

'13F A L L

issue in th i s

DEPARTMENTS 2 President’s Message 6 Letters to the Editor24 Philanthropy at YSU 26 Alumni News28 Penguin Sports News 29 Class Notes31 Penguin Mates

18

Around Campus – Construction has begun on YSU’s $1.25 million Veterans Resource Center on Wick Avenue, with plans for completion by next summer. The story leads this issue’s campus news pages.

Student Success Stories – A regular feature highlighting the achievements of YSU students.

COVER STORY: Molecules to Manufacturing – You’ve heard the buzz about additive manufacturing, 3D printing and product lifecycle management software. Find out how YSU is playing a key role in researching these advancements and preparing students for advanced technology careers. Ursuline Sisters Call YSU Their Alma Mater – Quietly working as teachers, tutors, counselors and community servants all across the Mahoning Valley, the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown have a collaborative partnership with the university.

Capturing Fall on the YSU Campus – Students and alumni shared their photos on Instagram to offer a glimpse of the beauty and excitement of autumn on the YSU campus.

Alumni Spotlight – We feature three exceptional alumni working in the medical field. Meet Dr. Chisa Echendu, ’00, ’06, Dr. Ronald Domen, ’72, and Rachel Sieman, ’94.

Faculty-Staff Bookshelf – Celebrating YSU faculty and staff who have recently published books or displayed their art or photos in major exhibits.

22

alumni.ysu.edu/info

ALUMNIupdate

14

Pete and Penny in 3D

We posed our new, 3D versions of YSU’s beloved penguin mascots, Pete and Penny, on Farmers National Bank Field across from Stambaugh Stadium. If you’d like to try making your own Pete and Penny, check out the inside back cover of this magazine, or visit www.ysumagazine.org, for a pattern and instructions. Just another way to show your Penguin spirit!

Scan the QR Code with your smartphone to see videos relatedto stories in this edition. www.ysumagazine.orgHelp YSU stay in touch with you. Visit our new,

interactive site to update your contact information.

3

7 8

16

President’s Message

Energizing Students with Ideas, Imagination and Innovation

Randy J. DunnPresident

Sincerely,

Randy J. Dunn, President

2 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

As I compose this letter of greeting for the fall magazine, I am simultaneously in the midst of writing the speech for my formal installation as YSU’s eighth president. Of course, I want my prose for such an occasion as that to be momentous and compelling, with maybe a turn of phrase or two that will be remembered at least beyond the post-ceremony reception!

It would be easy, I suppose, to simply restate my “3E” focus areas of Enrollment, Engagement and Excellence that we’re now heavily engaged in, but those have already received a good deal of attention during my first 100 days as president. Besides, I think the investiture of a president demands that a longer arc or perspective be taken in such a speech. Indeed, something beyond more temporal concerns regarding strategic direction-setting or budget reduction planning must drive the opening of the next chapter in an institution’s history, which the transition to a new president so clearly represents.

I’m guessing it would be unusual to ever characterize the installation address of a university president as soaring in its rhetoric (especially one delivered by me), but I’ve been reading some of these of late from my presidential colleagues recently inaugurated around the country. The best of those speeches encompass an array of larger, more global issues affecting all aspects of American higher education ... certainly ones which impact us no less so at Youngstown State University.

We are in a time – and YSU serves an area – in which many so-called traditional jobs are being changed or lost by automation and outsourcing. There is

a strong downward pressure on middle-class wages. (The U.S. Census Bureau reports that median household income for that sector in constant dollars has actually declined over almost 25 years, from $51,681 to $51,017.) Many scholars and researchers have documented the growing inequality between the wealthy and everyone else. And, as Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times Doyle McManus has opined, we rely on “officials who don’t seem capable of slowing these trends, let alone stopping them.”

Of course, any hope for reversing these trends lies in no small part with the institutions of higher education in this country. Particularly for public universities like YSU, in locations like the Mahoning Valley, the transformative nature of the experiences – both academic and otherwise – for our students cannot be overstated. We are uniquely positioned to be that place where young men and women can still be energized by the power of ideas, imagination and innovation to create a future for themselves marked by higher economic growth, stronger families, richer citizenship and well-lived lives.

So all of this is a great introduction to this issue of the magazine, demonstrating how YSU’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics is fulfilling higher education’s calling through many of its programs. The cover story, “Molecules to Manufacturing,” describes the increasing role that YSU is playing along the spectrum from research involving the development of new materials all the way through the actual manufacturing of products via 3D printing. A series of articles examines YSU’s involvement with the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, now called America Makes; highly specialized engineering software recently donated by Siemens Corp.; our ongoing research work with Fireline, Inc.; and one of our outstanding professors working at the nano level to create new materials for the manufacture of automotive catalytic converters.

All of these undertakings, while tremendously important to the economic resurgence of the Valley, also ignite the passion of our students and provide untold opportunities for them in the process. That is exactly what all great higher education everywhere is supposed to do ... and we do it here at Youngstown State University!

FALL 2013 3

AroundC A M P U S

Construction Work Begins on Veterans Resource CenterAfter years

of dreaming, discussing and designing, construction on the $1.25 million YSU Veterans Resource Center has begun.

The 6,000- square-foot, two-story center, located between the Pollock House and Melnick Hall on Wick Avenue, will help to improve and expand services to military veterans and service members transitioning to student life at YSU.

The building, which is set for completion by next summer, will be constructed entirely with private donations through an ongoing fund-raising campaign led by a 13-member cabinet that includes retired military personnel with close ties to YSU.

“Many of us in the veterans community and at the university have worked very hard to reach this day,” said Carl Nunziato, commenting at the groundbreaking ceremony in early September. Nunziato, a 1961 Youngstown University alumnus, Army veteran of the Vietnam War and former vice president of National City Bank Trust, and Bernie Kosar Sr., a 1959 graduate of the YSU Rayen School of Engineering and a 15-year veteran of the Army reserves, are co-chairs of the fund-raising cabinet.

“This certainly is a great day for the university and the community,” YSU President Randy J. Dunn said. “This center ensures that those who have served their country with honor will have the opportunities and programs needed to become successful students here at YSU.”

The Veterans Resource Center will house the YSU Office of Veterans Affairs and include staff and student offices, a conference room, study lounge, computer

lab, community gathering room and storage space.

The Office of Veterans Affairs, now housed in Tod Hall, is the initial entry point for YSU students who are active military or veterans, said Rick Williams, Veterans Affairs coordinator.

The building will be fully handicapped accessible and will serve as a one-stop shop for all veteran/military students. It will also allow expansion of services, including processing of all GI Bills, hosting

social functions for veteran/military students and providing office space for county services and Veterans Administration representatives to meet with students.

“This facility will allow YSU to offer services to veteran and military students unmatched by any other university in the region,” Williams said. “We are hopeful that the center and the expanded programming will make YSU an attractive option to veterans and military students looking to improve their civilian lives through higher education.”

An architect’s rendering of the YSU Veterans Resource Center, set for completion by summer 2014.

Breaking ground for the new Veterans Resource Center at YSU are, from the left, Rick Williams, coordinator of the YSU Office of Veterans Affairs; Harry Meshel, YSU trustee and a member of the VRC fund-raising campaign cabinet; Bernie Kosar Sr., cabinet co-chair; Carl Nunziato, cabinet co-chair; Sudershan Garg, chair of the YSU Board of Trustees; and YSU President Randy J. Dunn.

Work crews began preparing the Wick Avenue building site for the center in late October.

Visit www.ysumagazine.org for a video of the groundbreaking.

4 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

AroundC A M P U S

YSU Named to Forbes List of Top CollegesForbes magazine has included YSU in its annual list of America’s

Top Colleges for 2013. The rankings, developed by Forbes in partnership with the Washington, D.C.-based Center for College Affordability and Productivity, are tied to student satisfaction, post-

graduate success, student debt, graduation rate and other factors.“Our students and alumni are well aware of YSU’s excellence;

it’s gratifying to see that affirmed by a reputable, independent source such as Forbes,” YSU President Randy J. Dunn said. While YSU ranks 638 on the list of 650 top schools, he noted that about two-thirds of the 2,000 four-year colleges and universities in the nation didn’t even make it into the rankings.

“Just to be included on the list means that we are among the top one-third of four-year institutions in the nation, which is something very much worthy of our attention,” he said.

The Forbes ranking is the latest in a string of honors for YSU. The university placed 21st among nearly 400 post-secondary institutions in Ohio for providing the greatest lifetime return on investment in a report released by AffordableCollegesOnline.org.

In addition, a study by OnlineCollegesDatabase.org ranked YSU’s Beeghly College of Education one of the nation’s top 40 schools for teacher education, and edCetera, an education technology blog, recently recognized YSU for using cutting-edge technology to improve student retention.

Governor NamesStudent Trustee

Eric Shehadi, a mathematics major from McDonald, Ohio, has been named a student member of the YSU Board of Trustees. Gov. John Kasich appointed Shehadi to a two-year term that expires in 2015.

Shehadi is a Leslie H. Cochran University Scholar at YSU, treasurer of the University Scholars Trustees, vice president of Finance for Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity, a member of Pi Mu Epsilon, an honorary national mathematics society, and the STEM Leadership Society.

Eric Shehadi

Early College Ranked With Top High SchoolsYoungstown Early College, a partnership of the Youngstown city

schools and YSU, was ranked among the area’s best high schools under the state’s newly developed Ohio School Report Cards.

The high school, housed in Fedor Hall on the YSU campus, was ranked with seven other top-scoring Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana county high schools – Canfield, Poland, South Range, Western Reserve, Champion, Maplewood and McDonald.

YEC offers regular high school classes for students in grades nine through 12, and upper class students may also enroll in regular YSU college classes. More than half of the 47 students in the 2013 graduating class earned 50 college credits or more.

Pipino Performing Arts Series Named to Honor BusinessmanYSU’s annual performing art series has a new name honoring the late Donald P. Pipino, a successful business owner, accomplished musician and devoted patron of the arts who regularly attended YSU music and theatrical performances.

In the photo at left, Christine Pipino Muransky glances at a photo of her late father during a news conference announcing the naming of the Donald P. Pipino Performing Arts Series. Muransky, and her husband, Edward, made a $100,000 donation to the YSU College of Creative Arts and Communication which will be used to support the performing arts series in perpetuity.

“This performing arts series is such a perfect tribute to my beloved dad’s memory because music gave him such great pleasure,” Muransky said.

FALL 2013 5

Artist and Alumnus Al Bright was Summer Commencement Speaker

Alfred L. Bright, an internationally renowned artist, trail-blazing African American educator and YSU graduate, was the featured speaker at YSU’s summer commencement Aug. 17 in Beeghly Center.

Bright earned a bachelor’s degree in art education from YSU in 1964 and a master’s degree in painting from Kent State University. He was the first African American full service faculty member at Youngstown University in 1965 and was founding director of the university’s Black Studies (Africana Studies) Program at YSU, a position he held from 1970 to 1987.

Bright has had more than 50 solo art exhibits and his work appears in several permanent museum collections. He is listed in Who’s Who in American Art and Who’s Who in Black America; was awarded three YSU Distinguished Professorship Awards; served a five-year term on the Ohio Arts Council; and serves on the Junior Achievement Foundation Board of Directors.

Randy J. Dunn Installed as YSU’s Eighth President YSU honored its eighth president, Randy J. Dunn, at a formal installation ceremony Nov. 1 at Beeghly Center. At left, Dunn makes his installation address; in center photo, Chester Cooper, professor of molecular biology and microbiology and chair of YSU’s Academic Senate, congratulates Dunn as members of the YSU Board of Trustees look on; and on the right, Dunn’s wife, Dr. Ronda Dunn, at far right, laughs at the president’s remarks from the front row, where she sat with his parents, friends and family members. Dunn became president of YSU on July 15 after serving for nearly seven years as president of Murray State University in Kentucky.

College of STEM Awarded $470,000 Federal Grant

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan visited the YSU Campus last month to announce a $470,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for the purchase of two high-end X-ray diffractometers, used for research of materials on the atomic level.

Ryan said the grant continues to enhance YSU’s reputation as a distinguished research university. “When you’re talking about designing and building out the new economy, you have to have the equipment, the technology, for not only the research that’s going on, but for the future

workforce that is coming up through the pipeline,” he said. “That’s what this grant is all about. It’s making sure that students at YSU have top-notch equipment to learn on so they can tap into jobs here or somewhere else.”

Allen Hunter, chemistry professor and principal investigator on the grant, said research with a diffractometer can have many applications, from development of better

cleaning agents and stronger ceramics to anti-cancer drugs and better performing catalytic converters.

“Science and engineering research and education are expensive,” added Martin Abraham, dean of the YSU College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. “Without the support of funding agencies such as the NSF, we would not be able to provide the high quality education that our community expects and deserves.”

Visit www.ysumagazine.org for a video of the Dunn Installation ceremony.

Al Bright

Allen Hunter

6 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

Visit www.ysumagazine.org for a video to

Meet Our New Faculty

Send your letters to: universitymagazine@ysu.edu or YSU Office of Marketing and Communications, One University Plaza, Youngstown, OH 44555.

Letters.Letters.youryour

Editor,Just a note to provide additional information on the

historic photo in the summer issue of YSU Magazine. The article includes a photo of an unnamed majorette. She is Sandra Sisko Ciminero, my childhood friend and sister-in-law. She was the featured twirler and the only female member of the band that year.

Sandra and her husband, Sam, own Great Garage Doors in Youngstown. She continues to display her talent by twirling her fire baton at our annual family reunions! She still draws quite a crowd!

Sylvia Sisko’76 BSEd, ’84 MSEdWarren, Ohio

Editor,The summer 2013 issue of YSU’s wonderful alumni

magazine was truly amazing. I always enjoy receiving my copy, to be updated on others who cherish our alma mater, but this was especially meaningful. The article on the new president, Dr. Randy Dunn, captured the spirit of this great leader as well as clearly outlining his vision

for our university. I so appreciate your efforts to “tell the stories” of YSU students, alumni and leaders, and I hope this note expresses my deep affection for YSU and my gratitude for the outstanding communication.

Joyce E. Brooks’61 BSEd,’70 MSEd Canfield, Ohio

Sandra Sisko Ciminero, 1968

The university welcomed 37 new faculty members this fall. Visit the magazine website to meet a few of them.

AroundC A M P U S

University Theater Celebrates a Half-Century of Productions

YSU Theater celebrates its 50th season this year with a wide range of productions, including the world premiere of an original drama and a musical commemoration featuring selections from plays performed over the past 50 years.

“Tribunal,” an original play by local playwright Mark Milo Kessler, kicked off the season before sold-out audiences with its world premier in October. “Celebrating 50 Years Of University Theater: A Musical Commemoration,” showcasing scenes and songs from past productions, was on the stage in November at Ford Theater in Bliss Hall.

HERE’S THE SCHEDULE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON:

• “Holiday Cabaret,” Dec. 6, 7:30 p.m., presented by Penguin Playhouse and Alpha Psi Omega, Spotlight Theater.

• “Twelfth Night In 2014,” Feb. 28, March 1, 7 and 8 at 7:30 p.m., and March 2 and 9 at 2 p.m., a hysterical re-imagining of “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare, Spotlight Theater.

• “Crazy Like Love: An Evening of Two One-Act Plays,” March 28 and 29 at 7:30 p.m. and March 30 at 2 p.m., presented by Alpha Psi Omega, Spotlight Theater.

• YSU Dance Ensemble, April 10, 11 and 12, 7:30 p.m., choreographed works by visiting artists, students and faculty, Ford Theater.

• “Trial By Jury” and “Cox And Box,” April 24, 25 and 26 at 7:30 p.m. and April 27 at 2 p.m., two Gilbert & Sullivan one-act operas, part of the Donald P. Pipino Performing Arts Series, Ford Theater.

For tickets, call University Theater Box Office, 330-941-3105 or email performingarts@ysu.edu.

Highlighting the Achievements of Exceptional YSU Students

successs t u d e n t

S T O R I E S

Senior Releases First CD YSU senior Candy Campana of Struthers, Ohio, released

her first CD in July on the Nashville-based Soul 1st Records label. Her music is traditional country, and she performs locally and nationally. Campana earned an associate degree in art, and she’s working to complete her YSU baccalaureate, with a business concentration and a double minor in marketing and entrepreneurship. Campana expects to graduate in the summer of 2014, and then hopes to move to Nashville to pursue a career in country music.

Vocal Music Major Sings at VaticanSenior vocal music education major Emily Alcorn had two

exceptional performance opportunities in Italy this summer: she sang at the Vatican and played a role in a summer opera program. A Poland, Ohio, native, Alcorn participated in a Classical Singer magazine vocal music competition in March, first in Cleveland and then in Boston. Soon after, she was contacted by the Assisi Performing Arts Program with an invitation to sing with the Vatican Choir as part of its 500th anniversary celebration. Alcorn was already scheduled to spend part of the summer in Italy. She auditioned and had been accepted into the summer Opera Orvieto program, where she was to play Cherubino in “The Marriage of Figaro.”

Senior on Football Hall of Fame Court YSU senior Jill Grove was chosen to serve on the queen

pageant court for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, and participated in the landmark’s annual enshrinement ceremonies this summer naming Hall of Fame honorees. Grove, an Alliance, Ohio, resident, is a respiratory care major with a minor in psychology. She was chosen for the queen pageant court based on personality, poise, beauty, communication skills, academic achievement and

community service.

Undergrad Interns at U.S. Embassy, Paris

Celeste Marshall, a YSU sophomore, was in Paris this fall, serving as a U.S. Department of State student intern at the U.S. Embassy there. The Cortland, Ohio, resident qualified early for the internship program, which usually requires upperclassman status. She speaks French and Arabic and has been involved in YSU’s English Language Institute. A University Scholar pursuing political science and pre-law degrees, she plans another trip abroad in the spring, this time to study Turkish at Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey.

FALL 2013 7

Student Research Earns RecognitionResearch conducted by Louis Gallo, a graduate student

majoring in American studies, received special recognition at the Association for Documentary Editing 2013 Annual Meeting in Ann Arbor, Mich. A Hubbard, Ohio, resident, Gallo submitted a poster based on correspondence in the 1800s between members of the Sutliff family of Warren, Ohio, and others involved in politics and the abolitionist movement. His poster will be featured on the organization’s website and newsletter.

8 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

Brett Conner, associate professor of Mechanical and Industrial Systems Engineering, displays a 3D printed vase with a complex structure that was created using a process called selective laser sintering. Conner is researching practical uses for 3D printing at the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, now known as America Makes, and located in downtown Youngstown.

Discovering New Materials and New Ways to Do the Impossible

Molecules Manufacturing

TO

By Ron Cole and Cynthia Vinarsky

Tucked away in Ward Beecher Hall on the YSU campus, chemistry professors and students hunch over highly-advanced microscopy equipment that allows them to see science on the nano level, discovering new materials and new ways to do things that were once considered impossible.

A few blocks away, a once-abandoned downtown Youngstown building is now home to pristine new lab space dedicated to advanced manufacturing. There, engineering faculty and students watch as a state-of-the-art 3D printer buzzes to life, creating layer-by-layer-by-layer complex parts for use in aerospace, electronics and other industries.

YSU – and particularly its College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – is immersed in the new science of product creation that begins on the microscopic level. From studying cells under world-class electron microscopes to using highly advanced product lifecycle management software, YSU is taking the lead in a new age of manufacturing with cutting edge research and instruction.

This issue of YSU Magazine looks in on four groups of professors and students – people doing research, providing instruction, seeking out innovation and creating breakthroughs – each one of them highlighting YSU’s emerging prominence, all along the spectrum from molecules to manufacturing.

Discovering New Materials and New Ways to Do the Impossible

3D Printing: Venturing Into a New FrontierA father and son stroll into a shoe store at the local shopping mall to buy a new

pair of spikes for the upcoming high school soccer season. The budding teenaged soccer star chooses a style, color and spike design, puts his foot on a scanner and – voila – a 3D printer spits out a customized shoe.

Sounds a bit like something out of an Isaac Asimov science fiction novel.“Well, no, not really,” Brett Conner says. “Nike is already making customized

3D-printed shoes for NFL players. You can imagine this coming to a mall near you.”Conner should know.A native of Missouri with a PhD in materials science from the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology, Conner worked nearly 15 years in research and development for the U.S. military and for Alcoa before joining the faculty of the YSU Mechanical and Industrial Systems Engineering Department this summer.

He is the newest in a handful of YSU faculty tasked with leading the university’s research and education efforts in 3D printing – also known as additive manufacturing.

Soccer spikes are just the tip of the iceberg. Researchers have designed 3D-printable working clocks. A team of chemists in England is looking into ways to digitally print pharmaceutical drugs. In the fashion world, the technology has been used to create dresses and jewelry. Research continues on using additive manufacturing to create everything from integrated circuits to large-scale aerospace components. And NASA is working on how to print a pizza – for hungry astronauts traveling to Mars.

“It’s not quite to the level of the ‘food replicator’ in Star Trek, but we’re getting there,” Conner said.

And YSU is at the center of it all. In summer 2012, the federal government chose downtown Youngstown for the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, now also called America Makes. Hailed by President Obama during the State of the Union address earlier this year, NAMII is a consortium of government agencies, universities, industry and economic development representatives carrying the torch in support of advancing technological development in additive manufacturing.

Under additive manufacturing, 3D printers produce complex components by “building” the pieces layer-by-layer, instead of carving or machining parts from a single block of material. Experts say the new process represents a revolution in production methods across many industries and platforms.YSU’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics is a core player in NAMII, and that relationship was a big reason why Conner – whose vast experience includes managing metallurgy research at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and overseeing Naval research and development program at Alcoa – chose YSU.

9

Conner’s research interests focus on how to use additive manufacturing to produce gradient, impact-resistant and energy-absorbing materials. So, for instance, can additive manufacturing be used to create materials that will protect a spacecraft from micrometeorites slamming into it?

“One of the things I find so intriguing about additive manufacturing is how it integrates not only materials and the final product, but how it also integrates organizations and people,” he said. “So, the designer of the product is brought closer to the manufacturer because he can design the part and see it made right there in front of him. The two have to talk to each other because the manufacturing process is so close and so different.

“Today, we train engineers to design based on the limitations of the manufacturing process. We base it on milling tools and cutting tools and lathes and the limitations that come with that. Now, with additive manufacturing, a lot of these limitations go away.”

Aside from research, YSU’s key role will be to educate engineers and scientists who will be part of the additive manufacturing workforce of the future – students like Travis Kneen, a native of Canfield, Ohio. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Rochester and is now working on his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at YSU. Kneen and Conner spent this past summer at NAMII and are now working on a project that focuses on the use of additive manufacturing to create steel.

“This is an industry that is about to explode,” Kneen said. “I know I can be a part of that, and that’s what I’m preparing for.”

Conner acknowledged that sometimes the hype surrounding a new-fangled technology can outweigh

the practical applications of the technology. That’s not the case with additive manufacturing, he said.

“There’s a reason why there is so much hype, and it’s because there is such great potential,” he said. “This isn’t a joke. Just wait and see. Things are going to happen here.”

Kicking the Tires – Exploring a $440 M Software Gift

Six months ago, Mike Hripko opened the most surprising email of his life. It was a message from the global Siemens Corp., announcing that YSU had been awarded a software and training package valued at $440 million – certainly the largest in-kind gift the university has ever received.

“I was flabbergasted at the generosity of this company. The amount was staggering,” said Hripko, a director in YSU’s College of STEM.

Hripko’s initial reaction has been repeated over and over again by faculty members and students exploring the immensity of Siemens Corp.’s gift. “We’re just starting to open the box, kicking the tires. We’re finding out exactly what we have been awarded,” he said.

Once it’s incorporated into the curriculum, students will learn to operate the Siemens Product Lifecycle Management software that companies worldwide use to design and test products and parts, manage manufacturing processes, and even, direct end-of-use recycling of their products. Hripko said the system includes Computer Assisted Design (CAD), Computer Assisted Engineering (CAE) and Computer Assisted Manufacturing (CAM) applications.

Students majoring in mechanical, industrial, electrical, civil and environmental engineering will likely be the first to see PLM software included in their coursework, but Hripko expects other disciplines outside of engineering to use it eventually. “There’s so much there,” he said. “We envision applications in the arts and in health and human services.”

With worldwide sales topping $102 billion in 2012, Siemens Corp. is a subsidiary of Siemens AG, considered a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering. In Ohio alone, Siemens Corp. has 830 commercial customers using its PLM software; worldwide, the number tops 68,700, including 24 of the top automakers and 18 of the top aerospace companies. “That’s more than 68,000 open doors for our graduates,” Hripko said.

Eric Speigel, the company’s president, CEO and a Mahoning Valley native, has often been quoted in news stories about how the gift will serve as a recruiting tool for YSU and will help to prepare YSU grads for advanced technology careers. “Students all around the country are going to want to get in on this,” Speigel told IndustryWeek magazine in August. “If you’re an engineer and you want to get out in front with leading edge technology, [YSU] is going to be the place to go.”

Travis Kneen

Mike Hripko

10 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

FALL 2013 11

Martin Abraham, dean of YSU’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, said he discussed the recruiting and employment potential with the Siemens CEO recently. “He made it clear that companies Siemens works with regularly, and who use Siemens software, will see our students’ familiarity with this tool as an employment advantage,” Abraham said. “I agree, and I am confident that this will provide a great advantage to our students in the job market.”

YSU first entered Siemens Corp.’s radar as a prospective software-training partner two years ago when Speigel was on campus as keynote speaker for a regional Sustainable Energy Forum. The CEO often visits family in the area and was well acquainted with the region’s economy and history, but Abraham and Hripko credit Eric Planey, a former Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber executive, for maintaining contact with him after his campus visit.

When Youngstown was selected last year as the site for the country’s first National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, now known as America Makes, Planey made sure Spiegel heard about it. University officials believe the proximity of NAMII, located just blocks from campus in downtown Youngstown, helped YSU secure the Siemens software and training grant.

Jim Menego, a Siemens vice president serving as the company’s PLM executive sponsor at YSU, acknowledged that the proximity of NAMII is important to the company, and he’s already coordinated several meetings involving Siemens research and development people, NAMII officials and YSU faculty. “NAMII and YSU are complimentary to each other, and they’re both very important in their own right,” he said.

Menego is working with Mike Senediak of Youngstown, a Siemens employee who holds a mechanical engineering degree and an MBA from YSU. They’ve been on campus about once a month since the grant was announced, overseeing the software installation and training process, and Menego has also accepted a position on the College of STEM Advisory Board.

NAMII, the 3D printing technology/additive manufacturing it is researching and Siemens PLM software are all interrelated, said Abraham, because anything created through 3D printing or additive manufacturing technology must be designed and tested. “We’ll be able to integrate the design aspects of additive manufacturing with the equipment aspects,” he said. “That puts us in a unique position to provide education and training in this high-growth manufacturing opportunity.”

Siemens Corp. began installing PLM software on campus this summer, and it is now available on 200 STEM College computers, including those in computer labs and faculty offices. The technology won’t become outdated because the company’s gift includes annual software updates.

Some faculty members have already begun to modify their courses to take advantage of the software. At least one professor will begin incorporating PLM by spring semester,

and others will be ready by next fall. “Our faculty are becoming better educated on how they can use the software to support their classes,” said Abraham, “but we’ve only begun to scratch the surface on what we can do with this tool.”

STEM College Becomes Company’s ‘Research Arm’

Chemistry Professor Tim Wagner still remembers the day a Fireline Inc. manager walked into his office with a handful of ceramic product samples and asked if YSU could do X-ray analysis to determine their content on a molecular level.

That was a decade ago, and it marked the genesis of YSU’s evolving collaboration with Fireline, a Youngstown-based manufacturer of high-performance ceramic products primarily for the aerospace industry.

The Fireline manager who started it all was Mark Peters, the company’s director of engineering. He said working with YSU has allowed Fireline to grow – sales have more than doubled over the past 10 years – and to plan for the future with product research and development that typically wouldn’t be possible for a small business.

“Fireline is not a big company. We have about 100 employees. We consider ourselves successful and we have some very smart people,” Peters explained. “But we have limited resources. It would be extremely difficult for us to afford the kind of equipment or hire the expertise that our partnership with YSU provides.”

In fact, there is so much interaction between the company and the university now, Wagner and Peters agree, that YSU has literally become a research arm for Fireline. Several YSU STEM College faculty serve as technical advisors for the company; Fireline uses YSU’s high-tech instruments to analyze materials and products; the company employs one or two graduate student interns each semester; and in campus labs, students work with faculty on fundamental research exercises for Fireline.

“For me, it’s been thrilling. Fireline has given us an applied focus, a practical use for what we’re making,” said Wagner. “Instead of making something and then thinking about what it could be used for, we start with the applications and the properties that are needed, then try to create a substance that has those properties.”

YSU faculty are working with Fireline now on a grant proposal that would allow the company/university collaborative to make practical use of the very latest in advanced manufacturing technology. That includes YSU’s newly acquired project management software from the Siemens Corp. and the 3D printing technology that recently became available through NAMII, the National

Mark Peters

12 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

Contributing their research expertise to Fireline Inc., a Youngstown ceramic products manufacturer, while gaining work experience, from left, are graduate student interns Alethea Mymo and Michelle Curl, and Kyle Myers, a student in YSU’s new Materials Science and Engineering PhD program.

Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute in downtown Youngstown, now known as America Makes.

Peters said he’s excited about the possibilities 3D printing might offer Fireline, whether to make products more economically or to create products that can’t be made with current manufacturing methods.

One possible application, Wagner said, would be using 3D printers to create material samples that could be used as precursors to make composites. Fireline has been experimenting with ceramic-metallic composites for use in vehicle brake rotors and military body armor. Graduate students can produce small, pellet-sized samples of those composites in the lab, the professor said, but they need an economical means of making larger testing samples.

The Fireline/YSU collaboration started small in 2003, but it took on a new importance in 2008 when the university applied for an Ohio Third Frontier grant. Third Frontier grants were meant to improve technology for universities so they could assist small companies with research and development that would be unaffordable otherwise. Fireline was a perfect fit.

With the company’s support, YSU won $2.1 million in Third Frontier funds to create YSU’s Center for Excellence in Advanced Materials Analysis, now housed in Ward Beecher Hall. In 2011, the YSU/Fireline collaboration resulted in another grant, this one for $1.2 million to fund YSU’s ballistics testing facility in Moser Hall that Fireline uses to test materials it is developing for military body armor.

For students, YSU’s work with Fireline means internship opportunities and practical experience in the laboratory that look great on a resume.

The company typically employs one or two interns every year, graduate students whose majors include chemistry, mechanical engineering, mechanical engineering technology and industrial engineering.

Currently, there are three students working at Fireline: Kyle Myers, who’s enrolled in YSU’s new Materials Science PhD program and completed a Fireline internship while earning his MS in chemistry at YSU; intern Alethea Mymo, a graduate student studying inorganic chemistry who also earned a YSU BS degree in chemistry; and intern Michelle Curl, a graduate student studying industrial engineering, who completed a YSU BE in mechanical engineering technology

in 2012. Myers said his

Fireline internship was life changing and persuaded him to pursue a doctorate in materials science. “Coming from a chemistry background, I was always in the lab mixing chemicals,” he said. “Working at Fireline pushed me into the engineering area. We were working on material for high-temp brake rotors for racecars, and I realized I want to work on something more physical, more practical.”

FALL 2013 13

Ruigang Wang

Wagner, Pedro Cortes, assistant professor of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, and Virgil Solomon, assistant professor of Mechanical and Industrial Systems Engineering, also have graduate students working on what Peters calls “fundamental research,” studies that could lead to product development in the long term.

“The company isn’t funding them, but we support them,” Peters said. “As a business, we have to focus on development, getting a new concept into the marketplace, because that’s revenue for us. But fundamental research is also an important part of R&D.”

Creating New Materials on an Atomic Level

Jump in your car, crank the ignition, back out the driveway and start your daily commute to work.

Unbeknownst to you, as you tune in your favorite radio station, the catalytic converter under your seat is heating up to temperatures reaching a steamy 600 to 1,000 degrees as it changes three nasty pollutant-filled exhaust gases into more environmentally friendly non-pollutants.

That conversion – and creating new materials to make it more efficient and less expensive – is part of the fundamental research led by Ruigang Wang, assistant professor of Materials Chemistry at YSU.

“The kind of nano-science that Wang is doing is a very hot field right now all over the world,” said Tim Wagner, YSU professor of Chemistry. “It’s truly cutting-edge stuff.”

“What we’re doing,” Wang said, “is designing new materials on the atomic level.”

A native of China, Wang came to the United States a decade ago and earned a PhD from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Arizona State University.

After post-doctoral studies at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California, Wang accepted a faculty position at YSU in 2010.

In three years, he has published a dozen scholarly papers – including seven for his research on catalytic converters – and has established himself as one of the up-and-coming scientists in the YSU College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

With funding from the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund, Wang’s research, carried out in labs on the fifth floor of Ward Beecher Hall at YSU, is firmly implanted on the molecules end of the Molecules to Manufacturing spectrum.

Catalytic converters in automotive exhaust systems use washcoat materials to help change pollutant gases into non-pollutants. The process requires extremely high temperatures and very expensive materials, such as platinum, palladium and rhodium.

Wang’s research focuses on designing new washcoat materials – using less expensive metals such as nickel, copper and cobalt on rare-earth oxide support – that can run at lower temperatures, thus cutting down the wear-and-tear on other parts of the vehicle.

Wang does this, in part, by trying to control the sizes and shapes of nano particles. The research also has applications in the development of fuel cells and light-blocking materials. Wang and his team of graduate and undergraduate students conduct much of the research in two labs containing high-end testing and analysis equipment valued at over $100,000. They also use equipment in YSU’s electron microscopy facility, which allows researchers to examine inorganic and organic materials at atomic-level resolution.

It was the existence of such labs, along with YSU’s new PhD program in Materials Science and Engineering, that helped attract Wang to YSU. “You absolutely need this kind of instrumentation to do this kind of research,” he said.

14 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

Out of the 46 Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown, 44 are YSU graduates. Gathered in the chapel in their motherhouse in Canfield are, from left: front row, Sisters Marcia Welsh, Brendan Sherlock, Jeanne Cigolle, Francis Marie Sopko, Gertrude Paris, Nancy Dawson [General Superior and current YSU instructor] and Bridget Nolan; second row, Sisters Charlotte Italiano, Mary Ann Coz, Julia Baluch, Mary Ellen Dean, Marlene LoGrasso, Helen Nordick, Eileen Kernan, Helen Shea, Nancy Pawlen, Germaine Staron, Mary Dunn, Jerome Corcoran, Mary Alyce Koval; third row, Sisters Mary Ann Diersing, Dorothy Kundracik, Isabelle Rudge, Therese Ann Rich, Kathleen Minchin, Carole Suhar, Elizabeth Anne Friedhoff, Janice Kusick, Mary Lee Nalley, Mary McCormick, Regina Rogers; and fourth row, Sisters Jan Gier, Marie Maravola, Pauline Dalpe, Diane Toth, Eleanor Santangelo, Nancy DiCola, Norma Raupple, Mary O’Leary and Martha Reed. Not pictured are Sisters Darla Jean Vogelsang, Patricia McNicholas, Rose Dailey, Marilyn and Janet Frantz.

Editor’s Note: Sister Marcia Welsh, seated in the front row, passed away Oct. 9, a few weeks after the group photo was taken.

For nearly 140 years, the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown have been a quiet, driving force in the Mahoning Valley – and YSU has been a beneficiary, as well as a contributor, thanks to its longstanding, collaborative friendship with the sisters.

With a calling to help poor individuals and families, the Ursuline Catholic nuns have been living and carrying out their ministries in all of northeast Ohio, but particularly in the Youngstown area, since 1874.

Ursuline Sisters Call YSU their Alma Mater

by Andrea Tharp

F

They founded Ursuline High School, the Youngstown Community School and the Ursuline Preschool and Kindergarten and continue as educators at all three. The sisters also operate a variety of other services, including an HIV/AIDS ministry with a Comprehensive Care Center clinic that provides testing and treatment for HIV patients; housing, meals and education for the homeless; tutoring, counseling and prayer.

Through all of their endeavors, the sisters see their relationship with YSU as a key that connects them to the city and helps them fulfill their mission.

“Our founder, St. Angela Merici, left us with a message to change as the times change,” said Sister Nancy Dawson of the Ursuline Sisters. “As the needs in our valley have changed, we’ve added more and more services to adapt, and YSU has always provided a foundation for all of these ministries.”

Dawson, general superior of the Youngstown sisters, is also an adjunct instructor at YSU and a 1963 alumna. In fact, 44 of the 46 Ursuline Sisters have attended YSU, 10 have worked as instructors at YSU and several have gone on to earn master’s

degrees and PhDs. Nearly all of these graduates earned their baccalaureates in education from YSU.

Dawson and Sister Mary McCormick, a 1978 alumna, remember how YSU professors would teach the sisters on location at their Motherhouse in Canfield in the ’50s and ’60s. The university would also let sisters who were adjunct faculty teach at the Motherhouse, making it easier for others to earn their degrees.

In turn, the Ursuline Sisters have educated YSU students and helped build their resumes.

“We’ve always been closely connected to YSU because there’s such a great spirit of collaboration there,” said McCormick. “Many sisters work with both high school and college students of lower-income families through tutoring services. We educate them on how to get into college and how to stay there, and sometimes provide for books or fees.”

And through the sisters’ Volunteer/Intern Program, YSU students find opportunities for experience at several Ursuline ministries, including: Beatitude House, which offers transitional housing for homeless mothers and children; the Ursuline Center, an educational, counseling and prayer facility; Potter’s Wheel, which provides employment assistance to the disadvantaged, computer and language courses for immigrants; and many more.

A big component of the volunteer program is matching students to jobs appropriate to their majors to enhance their learning. Dawson said some students have even found employment through the program.

One 2010 YSU alumna, Rachael Hernan of Youngstown, said her volunteer experience with the Ursuline Sisters led to her current position as development associate at the Beatitude House. A frequent volunteer there during her undergraduate years in the YSU Scholars Program, Hernan transitioned to a part-time paid position, and finally to a full-time role after college.

“I was fortunate enough, largely in part to my previous experience with the Ursulines and the opportunities that involvement presented, to be able to stay in Youngstown after graduation,” said Hernan.

“The Ursuline Sisters have built a strong foundation of beneficial organizations and services in the area, and their relationship with YSU has only strengthened their ability to support the people of our community.”

From earning their degrees to teaching at the university to providing services for students and individuals in the community, the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown have an ongoing relationship with YSU that they hope will last. “This has been our home since 1874. We want to continue making it our home and working with the area,” said McCormick. “YSU contributes immensely to that goal.”

FALL 2013 15

In fact,of the44444646

Ursuline Sisters attended YSU …

nearly all earned their bachelor’s degrees in education from YSU.

Ursuline Sisters wearing traditional habits posed on the steps outside Jones Hall to celebrate completing their degrees in this 1959 commencement photo.

Capturing

FALL on the

YSU Campus

@g1ng3rc0urtn3y @rea330 @nilesbabe2013 @everybody_loves_barbie @trich7224

@zaki13 @mlbrande @gettothecioppa @jamie209 @stephanie_lorraine

@ivoryanns13 @ninjapati @pixel_brained @alsadeq01

We invited YSU students and alumni to help us capture the beauty and excitement of autumn on the YSU campus by posting their

best fall photos on Instagram, a popular photo-sharing and social media network. Here’s a sampling of the great photos we received in response. We’ve identified photographers by their Instagram “handles.” Find YSU on Instagram at www.instagram.com/youngstownstate, or follow us @youngstownstate.

16@zak13

@everybody_loves_barbie @marissalubinski @zombiedana @rebeccapeelman @kjkimboslice

@lakielou @gettothecioppa @mlbrande @gsandy2013 @marissalubinski

@court_nicole424 @jamiehall06 @alsadeq01 @bignastykg @alsadeq01

@pixel_brained @dustyayres @geezegreg @stephanie_loraine @zaki13

@newyorkcitybound1995 @gabitron9 @emcoelho2013 @marissalubinski @g1ng3rc0urtn3y

@emmyshrek @pixel_brained @ninjapati @mlbrande @corygerman 17

18 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

C E L E B R A T I N G A C C O M P L I S H E D G R A D U A T E Salumni SPOTLIGHT

YSU Grads Making a Difference in Medicine

In this edition of Alumni Spotlight we profile three exceptional graduates working in three different aspects of the medical profession. Dr. Chisa Echendu is a medical resident in Houston,

Texas, with plans to specialize in radiation oncology; Dr. Ron Domen is a medical college professor in Hershey, Pa., and an authority in bioethics; and Rachel Siemen is a registered

nurse and midwife who recently opened a birth center in Youngstown.

Christopher Sondles

Chisa Echendu

FALL 2013 19

Chisa Echendu, MD, PhD ’00 BS, ’06 MS in Chemistry

After Cancer, Patient Care is Her Passion

Profile by Cynthia Vinarsky

Dr. Chisa Echendu fell in love with biochemical research when she was a YSU undergrad. She spent countless hours behind a microscope, earned BS and MS degrees in chemistry here, then was accepted into a prestigious doctoral program in molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.

But at age 26, midway toward earning her PhD, Echendu got some news that would reroute her career path – she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer.

At first, determined not to interrupt her work, she continued her studies and laboratory research through 10 months of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation treatments. “I saw no point to sitting around feeling sorry for myself, so I just kept working out, shopping, doing normal things,” she said. “When I lost my hair, I put on a fancy African scarf and people thought I was making a fashion statement.”

Echendu forged close friendships during that period with some fellow cancer patients she met at her Wednesday morning chemo treatments. The women laughed and cried together, gave support and encouragement.

“We were so close, we were like family,” she said, remembering how the women quizzed her about her research. “They wanted to know how the work I was doing would help patients, and that was a defining moment for me. That’s when I realized that, as much as I love doing research, I really want to translate what I’m doing to actual patient care.”

She survived the cancer – it’s been seven years – completed her PhD in 2008 and began medical school at Baylor later that same year. Now she has begun a medical residency in radiation oncology, also at Baylor College of Medicine. She expects to complete her training in 2017.

Instead of spending her life behind a microscope, Echendu now hopes to combine her research and patient care skills and to be at the forefront of diagnostics and therapy for cancer

treatment. “I’ve discovered that nothing compares to just talking to patients and telling them you can directly help them. It’s a tremendously awesome feeling,” she said. “Even if you can’t extend their life, just to be able to offer comfort is both humbling and inspiring. That patients will

entrust their care to you as a physician is an exceptional privilege.”

A native of Nigeria, Echendu came to the United States for

college at age 17, lived with an aunt in Cleveland and took classes at a community college. When a guidance counselor heard about Echendu’s 4.0 GPA, he offered to help search for a scholarship

in a baccalaureate-level science degree

program, and they found YSU’s University Scholars

program. “I got accepted, and that’s how I got to YSU.

It was amazing,” she said of the program, which provides high-achieving

undergraduates with full tuition, room and board for four years. “It gave me a chance to study and not worry about anything else.”

After earning her baccalaureate, she was awarded a graduate assistantship that covered the cost of her master’s degree at YSU and allowed her to continue her biochemical research on the herpes simplex virus.

While living in Youngstown and attending YSU, Echendu met her husband, Dike, also a Nigerian native and an accountant. They have twin four-year-old daughters, Chloe and Camille – born during her second year of medical school – that Echendu describes as “very independent and strong-willed.”

She hopes to raise them, as her parents raised her and her siblings, with a strong, optimistic attitude. “I feel like I have a lot of things to offer the world, and I’ve been given a second chance,” she said. “What I say to my children, I would also say to all the people at YSU, that anything is possible.”

“As much as I love doing research, I really want to translate what

I’m doing to actual patient care.”

Dr. Chisa Echendu

alumni SPOTLIGHT

Med School Professor is Authority on Bioethics

Rachel Sieman, ’94 BS in Nursing

Bringing Childbirth Back to Nature

YSU nursing grad Rachel Sieman has never liked the way modern medicine handles healthy, normal childbirth – the fetal monitors, the IVs, the rules against eating and drinking and getting out of bed. “We just

make it so abnormal when it really isn’t,” she says.

Determined to provide an alternative for women who want a more natural birth experience, the 1994 YSU nursing grad and mother of four opened the Mahoning Valley Birth Center in Youngstown. Sieman said the center, licensed by the Ohio Department of Health, is the only freestanding birth center in the state that is open to the public – there is one other, available only to Amish women.

While many hospitals have given their labor-and-delivery rooms a homey décor, Sieman argues their standard procedures for women in labor still make the experience more difficult than it should be. In most cases, she said, once admitted to the hospital a laboring woman can’t eat, drink or walk around, she has an IV in one

Dr. Ronald Domen’s dreams of a medical career began with childhood visits to his family doctor. He never envisioned then that he would become a medical school professor and a nationally recognized authority on bioethics.

Domen is a professor of pathology, medicine and humanities at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine and has been teaching and researching for more than 30 years.

“Research and teaching were the furthest things from my mind in med school. The idea was to go back to Warren and open a family practice,” said Domen.

The ’72 alumnus was a first-generation college student when he started at YSU. His dad, a self-taught electrician, mother, who stayed home to raise children, brother and Domen lived in Warren, Ohio, on a tight budget, and Domen worked odd jobs from a young age, eventually finding a position as an orderly at Trumbull Memorial Hospital during college.

“I worked in the operating room on day shift and had YSU classes at night, or worked the evening shift on the wards and had classes during the day – whatever it took,” said Domen.

From a great study abroad opportunity at YSU, Domen entered medical school at the Universidad Autonoma de

Guadalajara in Mexico, graduating with his MD in 1975. He then completed his internal medicine residency in Cleveland and went on for clinical pathology training at Ohio State University.

“I was at OSU when I realized I wanted to stay in academic medicine,” said Domen. “I was teaching residents and med students, I had great teachers and mentors, I liked doing research – everything just came to a head.”

From Guadalajara to the Cleveland Clinic, where he was appointed to the ethics committee in the ’90s, to his work at Penn State, Domen has always found a particular academic interest in bioethics. He is a leader in developing an ethical framework in the field of transfusion medicine.

“The thinking not too long ago was that blood donation is a simple, benign procedure,” explained Domen, “but there are potential risks and complications in donating blood. To me, it’s an ethical question if we are not informing donors to the best of our ability.”

His study on informed consent recommendations for blood donors was published and resulted in an invited presentation in front of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which later made advisements based on his

20 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

Rachel Sieman

Boardman, under the supervision of obstetrician Dr. Joni S. Canby. Canby is also collaborative physician for the birth center. So far, Sieman said, about half her patients have chosen to deliver at the center; the other half have chosen hospital delivery – she also has midwife privileges to deliver babies at St. Elizabeth Health Center and Northside.

Sieman grew up in Youngstown, earned her BS in nursing at YSU in 1994 and started her career as a registered nurse at Sharon Regional Hospital, Sharon, Pa. She later worked at St. Elizabeth and the Doughty View Midwifery Center in Millersburg, Ohio. She earned her midwife certification in 2007 from the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing after training at Beeghly Women and Infants Pavilion in Boardman and in 2008 completed a master’s degree in nursing from Case Western Reserve University.

As a midwife and birth center director, Sieman is often on call around the clock. On days off, she and her husband, Richard, enjoy traveling to visit their two adult sons – Robert, a West Point graduate who’s now an Army helicopter pilot stationed in Alabama, and Alex, an electrical engineering major at the University of Pittsburgh. They also have two daughters, Katherine, 18, a nursing student at YSU, and Gwendolyn, 15.

Ronald Domen, MD, ’72 AB in Pre-Med

Profile by Andrea Tharp

Profile by Cynthia Vinarsky

For more on Sieman’s birth center, visit: MahoningValleyBirthCenter.com

arm and a fetal monitor fastened around her middle. Her own childbirth experiences inspired her decision

to open a birth center. She was required to follow the usual childbirth rules with her first two children, now 23 and 21; with her second two, now 18 and 15, she delivered with the assistance of a midwife and experienced more relaxed, natural births.

“In a healthy pregnancy with no complications, it can be so different,” she said, describing the way women in labor at the Mahoning Valley Birth Center are encouraged to snack, drink, walk around and even step outside.

The center’s two birth rooms are equipped with birthing tubs that are used to help women relax during labor. “I’ve had some moms say that the water is so comforting, they hardly feel the contractions,” she said.

Fetal monitors are used intermittently instead of continuously; IVs are available if needed but not required; and the staff has immediate access to equipment for resuscitating baby or mother, if needed. “We have all the medical safeguards in place, but in a homelike environment,” she said.

Sieman chose her location carefully. It is 1.3 miles away from Northside Medical Center, and the hospital has agreed to accept immediate patient transfers if a mother or baby is ever in distress. The birth center doesn’t accept high-risk pregnancies.

As a certified nurse-midwife, Siemen provides prenatal care to patients at Progressive Women’s Care Inc. in

findings. Subspecializing in transfusion medicine, clinical pathology and transplant immunology, Domen has also been invited around the country to speak on bioethics.

Domen is medical director of the histocompatibility laboratory at Penn State Hershey Medical Center, overseeing the human leukocyte antigen testing of bone marrow and solid organ donors and recipients to ensure compatible transplants. He also practices transfusion medicine and recently stepped down after eight years as Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education, where he oversaw 58 residency and fellowship programs. Domen is currently working on a second edition of his book, Ethical Issues in Transfusion Medicine, as well as other clinical research projects and creative pieces – areas in which he’s also published. In addition, he serves on committees in several national professional organizations.

“Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would end up here,” Domen said. “It wouldn’t have been possible without Youngstown State. It was the one and only option available to me after high school, and what a gem it turned out to be.”

Domen resides in Hershey, Pa., with his wife, Kate. They have two adult children, a son and daughter.

FALL 2013 21

alumni SPOTLIGHT

Ronald Domen

Frederick Douglass, A Life in Documents, edited by L. Diane Barnes, professor, History. Published by University of Virginia Press, August 2013. Frederick Douglass was born enslaved in February 1818, but from this most humble of beginnings rose to become a world-famous orator, newspaper editor and champion of the rights of women and African Americans. This volume gathers and interprets selections from a variety of Douglass’ writings, including speeches, editorials, correspondence and autobiographies.

Before and Afterlives, by Christopher Barzak, associate professor of creative writing, English. Published by Lethe Press, March 2013. A winner of the Crawford Award, the author’s newest work is a collection of haunting stories. These are tales of relationships with unearthly domesticity and eeriness: a woman falls in love with a haunted house; a beached mermaid is substituted for a missing daughter; the imaginary friend of a murdered young mother stalks the streets of her small town; a teenage boy is afflicted with a disease that causes him to vanish; a father exploits his daughter’s talent for calling ghosts to her; and a wife leaves her husband and children to fulfill her obligations to a world from which she escaped.

Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course, co-authored by Jennifer Behney, assistant professor of Italian and second language acquisition, Foreign Languages and Literature with Susan M. Gass and Luke Plonsky. Published by Taylor and Francis, March 2013. The book is an introductory level textbook on second language acquisition.

Latin Expansion in the Medieval Mediterranean, edited by Eleanor A. Congdon, associate professor, History, Vol. 7

B O O K S H E L FF A C U LT Y YSU Magazine publishes the Faculty Bookshelf annually to

celebrate the successes of our faculty and professional staff who have recently published books, released new musical recordings or had art or photos featured in exhibitions.

of The Expansion of Latin Europe 1000-1500. Published by Ashgate Variorum, August 2013. The editor assembled a collection of articles by scholars worldwide that explore fundamental questions of Mediterranean history.

Images of America: Youngstown, by Donna DeBlasio, professor, History and director, Center for Applied History. Published by Arcadia Publishing, 2013. The book is a pictorial history of Youngstown, reflecting the overwhelming presence of the iron and steel industry and its impact on the lives of the area's people.

Zero Resistance Weight Loss: How to Lose Weight Naturally and Fast, by Matthew Good, part-time faculty, Human Ecology. Published by Good Health Industries, April 2013. The author is a registered dietitian and weight loss expert who has lost more than 100 pounds and maintained that weight loss for more than a decade. His book reveals some methods for readers to reprogram their minds so that it is possible to lose weight.

Buddhist Fury: Religion and Violence in Southern Thailand, by Michael Jerryson, assistant professor, Philosophy and Religious Studies. Published by Oxford University Press, 2011. The author offers an extensive examination of one of the least known but longest-running conflicts of Southeast Asia. The conflict, which is based primarily in Thailand’s southernmost provinces, is partially fueled by religious divisions.

The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence, edited by Michael Jerryson, assistant professor, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Mark Juergensemyer and Margo Kitts. Published by Oxford University Press, 2013. Violence has always played a part in the religious imagination, from symbols and myths to legendary battles, from colossal

wars to the theater of terrorism. This book surveys intersections between religion and violence throughout history and around the world.

Pagan Family Values: Childhood and the Religious Imagination in Contemporary American Paganism, by S. Zohreh Kermani, part-time faculty, Philosophy & Religious Studies. Published by NYU Press, July 2013. The book is an ethnographic study of the ways that contemporary Pagan families in the United States teach their children about their religion and how Pagan adults and children understand and negotiate childhood/adulthood in this new religious movement.

Images, Texts, and Marginalia in a Vows of the Peacock Manuscript, by Domenic Leo, adjunct professor of Art History, Art. Published by Pierpont Morgan Library MS G24, August 2013. The author explores the illuminated manuscripts, notes and miniatures that were included in “Vows of the Peacock,” a poem composed in 1312 in France. The book includes a catalogue and concordance of all Peacock manuscripts.

Prehospital Emergency Care, by Joseph J. Mistovich, chair and professor, Health Professions, with Keith J. Karren and Brent Hafen. Published by Prentice Hall, July 2013. This book meets the National Emergency Medical Services Education Standards as a complete resource for Emergency Medical Technicians’– Basic training. It contains clear, step-by-step explanations, case studies and other tools to enhance students’ ability to assess and manage ill and injured patients in pre-hospital environments.

Transition Series: Topics for the Paramedic, by Joseph J. Mistovich, chair and professor, Health Professions, with Daniel J. Batsie and Daniel J. Limmer. Published by Prentice Hall, July 2012. This text provides

22 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY22 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

FALL 2013 23

Down the Hill by the Stomp Pass the Water Pump Make Right, by Dragana Crnjak, assistant professor, Art, was featured this summer in an exhibition titled “Multiple Propositions: a Look at Contemporary Drawing” at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, one of the nation’s top art schools. Crnjak, one of nine artists invited to participate, developed the 15-foot-square site-specific drawing directly on the gallery wall. Her work investigates drawing and painting practices within a contemporary context, using charcoal as her primary medium. Crnjak was presented the Individual Excellence Award by the Ohio Arts Council in 2011 and in 2008.

a timely, topical continuing education guide for practicing paramedics, with an overview of new information in the Education Standards and the Paramedic level.

Transition Series: Topics for the Advanced EMT, by Joseph J. Mistovich, chair and professor, Health Professions, and Daniel J. Limmer. Published by Prentice Hall, January 2012. The book offers an overview of new information contained within the Education Standards at the AEMT level plus a source of continuing education for practicing AEMTs. For EMTs and AEMTs being educated and trained under the new Education Standards, the text provides a greater foundation of knowledge for practicing pre-hospital care. 

Working Class Heroes: Rock Music and British Society in the 1960s and 1970s, by David Simonelli, associate professor, History. Published by Lexington Books, January 2013. The book uses rock music as a way to examine changes in British society and its socio-economic classes during the 1960s and 1970s. Simonelli combined two of his interests – British history and rock music – traveling to Britain several times to research the book and studying music journals, newspapers and archives to analyze the politics, economics and social class attitudes of the British.

Therapeutic Storytelling for Adolescents and Young Adults, co-authored by Johanna Slivinske, part-time faculty, Social Work, and Lee Slivinske, professor emeritus, Social Work; foreword by Hester Doyle of Yale University. Published by Oxford University Press, October 2013. The authors introduce techniques they call Gradual Self-Disclosure Storytelling and the PLAN Method of intervention. The techniques are designed to empower adolescents, young adults and the people who work with them through therapeutic narrative.

Practicing Prevention: How to be Healthy and Whole, by editors and contributors Roland C. Barksdale-Hall, adjunct faculty, Africana Studies, and Pamela H. Payne Foster. Published by Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers, 2013. The book is a comprehensive guide to disease prevention and wellness – promoting holistic health of body, mind and spirit, especially for minority communities – from physicians at the University of Alabama, a nurse researcher, a nurse-clergywoman and a health information specialist. 

www.ysu.edu

Transience, a major solo photo exhibition by Stephen Chalmers, assistant professor of photography, Art, was on display at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts from Feb. 1 through April 7. For the project, Chalmers photo-graphed and interviewed people living a transitory life – ranging from affluent “snowbirds” living in recre-ational vehicles to those of limited means, including methamphetamine addicts, ex-convicts and others choosing to live off the grid in the desert Southwest. Chalmers’ photos were also featured in Looking at the Land – 21st Century Ameri-can Views, the contemporary

portion of a seminal exhibition titled “America in View: Landscape Photography 1865 to Now” that is now on

display at the RISD Museum of Arata in Provi-dence, R.I. The show, a survey of major figures in the history of photography since its inception as a medium, garnered positive reviews from interna-tional media, including Time Magazine, National Public Radio and American Photo Magazine.

“Marc,” an oil painting by Margarita “Margo” Bailey, administrative assistant, Office of the General Counsel, was accepted and exhibited at the Trumbull Art Gallery’s TAG Annual from August through October 2012, and at the Butler Institute of American Art’s 75th Area Artists: Annual Exhibi-tion in March and April. Bailey also had encaustic collages accepted for the 31st Annual YWCA Women Artists exhibition and two other oil por-traits were accepted for the 2013 TAG Annual.

ArtsON DISPLAY

V I S U A L

FALL 2013 23

"Marc," by Margarita Bailey

Baby with Tractor at Sunset (vandalized Cerney/Sun Kim sculpture),

Phoenix, Ariz., by Stephen Chalmers

24

hilanthropy Y O U N G S T O W N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

Scholarships Represent a Family’s LegacyP

Bob Camardo vividly recalls the day he discovered that a YSU scholarship had been established years before in honor of his grandfather, Gene D’Antonio. The ’81 alum was attending a football game at Stambaugh Stadium in the late 1990s when he first spotted the D’Antonio Scholarship plaque on a wall in the loge complex.

He checked with the YSU Foundation and learned that his aunt, Irma J. D’Antonio, had created the endowed scholarship in her father’s memory in 1979. Later, when D’Antonio passed away in 2001, the Camardo and D’Antonio families honored her by endowing an athletic scholarship in her memory.

Those two scholarships helped forge a bond between the YSU Athletics Department and the families, and Bob’s father, Robert, became fast friends with Jerry Slocum, YSU men’s basketball coach. When Camardo Sr. died in 2009, his family honored the friendship by establishing a third endowed athletic scholarship, the Robert G. Camardo Scholarship, awarded annually to a men’s basketball player.

Now the Gene D’Antonio, the Dr. Irma J. D’Antonio and the Robert G. Camardo scholarship plaques hang side-by-side in Stambaugh Stadium’s loge complex, representing a family’s love and commitment to present and future generations of Penguin student athletes.

Celebrating the naming of a team room in Williamson Hall in honor of Katherine Glinatsis Kartalis are, from left, the honoree’s daughter, Elena Casper, Katherine and Andrew Kartalis, daughter Angelique Berry and her husband, Jason.

Williamson Hall Room Named to Honor Business Ed Alumna

A meeting and study room in the Williamson College of Business Administration has been named the Katherine Glinatsis Kartalis Team Room to honor the 1959 business education graduate.

Located on the second floor of Williamson Hall, the room provides dedicated and quiet space for student group study and other interaction, such as group meetings for planning or preparation of class presentations.

The dedication is the result of a $525,000 gift from Andrew and Katherine Glinatsis Kartalis – $450,000 to establish an endowed scholarship with the YSU Foundation, $25,000 to the Veterans Resource Center and $50,000 to the Williamson College of Business Administration to name the room.

Members of the Camardo and D’Antonio families met recently with this year’s scholarship recipients. They are, from left, Bob Camardo Jr., Stephen Page (Football), Richard Camardo, Allison Mitzel (Women’s Golf), Sandra D’Antonio, Shawn Amiker (Men’s Basketball), Mary Ann Camardo and Cindy Camardo.

FALL 2013 25

New Center to Honor Vets’ Sacrifice, Courage

By R. Scott Evans, Vice President for University Advancement

The words of Thucydides, an Athenian historian, came to mind during the recent

groundbreaking ceremony for the YSU Veterans Resource

Center. “The secret of happiness is freedom,” he wrote, “and the secret of freedom, courage.”

A significant group of campaign volunteers, donors, students, faculty, staff, elected officials and university trustees crowded under and around a tent on the Wick Avenue building site for the program Sept. 4. We were overwhelmed by the number of local veterans who were present, men and women from various branches of the military, many in uniform. It was a sight to see and an honor to witness their support and sentiment for YSU’s efforts to attract and assist even more veteran students. YSU has nearly 400 veteran students enrolled at this time.

The shovels were turned in the ground to mark the start of this building project, scheduled to be complete late next summer. This was a great day for YSU; however, it was also a reminder that we owe our appreciation and gratitude to veterans for their courage in defending our freedom.

The campaign for the project is well under way, and we have commitments for more than 70 percent of the $1.25 million project cost, as it stands at the time this publication was printed. The goal is to fund the center 100 percent through private contributions. Please consider joining other donors by making a gift for the YSU Veterans Resource Center in honor or in memory of a veteran. For more information, contact University Development, 330-941-3119.

Participating in a ceremony naming a student lounge in Moser Hall in memory of the late Jack Bakos Jr., a longtime YSU engineering professor, from left: Lumi and Jason Bakos with daughter, Jade Danielle; Bakos’ wife, Patsy; YSU President Randy J. Dunn and Martin Abraham, STEM college dean.

The student lounge known as the “Fishbowl” in YSU’s Moser Hall has been renamed in memory of the late Jack Bakos Jr., a distinguished member of the university’s engineering faculty for nearly four decades.

Bakos’ widow, Patsy, provided a gift of $75,000 to renovate the lounge, in addition to a $75,000 donation to establish the Bakos Family Scholarship.

Lounge renovations included new doors and ceiling, lights and flooring, as well as a new showcase and collaboration tables.

Bakos, who passed away a year ago at the age of 71, served YSU for nearly 36 years as professor, advisor to the American Society of Civil Engineers student chapter, and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

“I can’t think of a better way to honor my husband’s memory than to continue the legacy he created at YSU,” said Bakos’ wife, Patsy. “He inspired his students and was inspired by them.”

The university played an important role in the Bakos family’s personal lives. Jack Bakos met his wife at YSU, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education. Their son, Jason Bakos, ’99, and his wife, Lumi, ’01, ’02, are also alumni who met at YSU.

Student Lounge Named for Engineering Professor

“On behalf of the entire university, I want to thank Andrew and Katherine Kartalis for their generosity and their commitment to Youngstown State University and our students,” said YSU President Randy J. Dunn. His comments were part of a ceremony and reception held in early October to dedicate the newly renamed team room.

“I wanted to make this contribution to show my appreciation for the valuable education I received at YSU and to provide scholarship support for business students that need financial assistance to complete their education,” Glinatsis Kartalis said.

After completing her degree at YSU, Glinatsis Kartalis traveled the world with her husband, Andrew, who was a career Naval officer. They settled in the Cleveland area with their two daughters. As a result of their philanthropy, the Kartalises are now members of the YSU President’s Council.

26 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY26

alumni news

Scholarship Connects Student with Arizona Cousin

‘Drop By Alumni’ Event Highlights Welcome Week

YSU Event Coordinator Heather Belgin, at left, greets students attending the Drop By Alumni event on the Alumni House lawn, sponsored by the Office of Alumni and Events Management as part of Welcome Week. Hundreds of returning students, faculty, staff and alumni participated. Current students had a chance to network with graduates, professors and administrators in a casual, entertaining setting. Students new to YSU received a Penguin Pride pin, signifying the start of their college career, and caught a glimpse of the YSU Alumni pin that they will receive upon graduation.

Alumni Cheer on Pittsburgh Pirates Pittsburgh’s PNC Park was the setting this summer for a

YSU Alumni Night at a Pittsburgh Pirates game. Among those attending were, from left, Tony Ghioldi, ’06, ’09, Bobby

Zahner, ’09, YSU President Randy J. Dunn and Elia Crisucci, ’04. The husband-and-wife team of Ghioldi and Crisucci are from Freedom, Pa.; Zahner is from Pittsburgh. More than 130 alumni from the Pittsburgh and Youngstown areas participated in the July 30 event, which included the game and a reception.

YSU freshman Allison Guerrieri was recently awarded a $2,000 scholarship by YSU’s Arizona Alumni Chapter, and she was eligible to apply because a cousin she had never met is a member of the group.

Guerrieri, who lives in Struthers, got to meet her cousin, Laura Stizza of Fountain Hills, Ariz., at YSU’s Half Century Club Reunion on campus last month. Stizza’s late husband, YSU alumnus Ed Stizza, was a founder and former chair of the Arizona Alumni Scholarship Committee, and she has continued his work since his passing.

“I never thought I would have the chance to meet my family on my dad’s side, but YSU made that possible,” said Guerrieri, adding that her father and grandfather were both YSU alumni, and her brother is a current student.

As a chemistry/pre-pharmacy major, Guerrieri will follow an accelerated undergraduate program for two years at YSU before applying to the Northeast Ohio

Medical University, where she plans to earn a doctorate degree in pharmacy. Her goal is to work in a hospital emergency room setting.

YSU’s Arizona Alumni Chapter recently renamed its award the Art McGaffic-Ed Stizza Scholarship in memory of Guerrieri’s cousin and one other long-time chapter member. The chapter has awarded the scholarship four times in its 12-year history.

Presenting a $2,000 scholarship to freshman Allison Guerrieri, center, are Noreen Moderalli, left, president of the YSU Alumni Society Board, and Laura Stizza, right, representing YSU's Arizona Alumni Chapter.

FALL 2013 27

For more information about any of these events, contact the Office of Alumni and Events Management, 330-941-3497.

alumni news

Pete the Penguin’s European Vacation

When YSU alumnus David Ramunno, ’87, and wife, Carla, packed their bags for their recent 25th anniversary vacation, there was one thing they made sure to take along – Pete the Penguin. The Milford, Mich., couple carried Pete across the globe to Rome, Italy, where he joined them for a tour of the Roman Colosseum.

We’re making it easier for you to take Pete along on your travels! You’ll find a full color Pete cutout on the back cover of this issue, so you can make your own 3D penguin mascot. Be sure to email us your vacation photos with Pete, along with your name, graduation year, city of residence and location visited. Send to Christina Texter, cmtexter@ysu.edu.

Student Government Reunion Draws a CrowdMore than 50 attended a Student Government Association Reunion in September that allowed students currently involved in YSU’s SGA opportunities to meet and network with SGA alums. Alumni attending are, from left, seated in the front row: Nizar Diab, ’95, ’97, Morgantown, W.Va.; Mikaella Smith, ’09, Euclid; James Senary, ’76, Boardman; Sherman Miles, ’08, Campbell; John Uslick, ’61, Canton; Penny Pavelko, ’70, Leetonia; Abbie Twyford, ’10, ’12, Toronto, Ohio; and Joni Koneval, ’10, Hubbard. Standing in second row, from left: Scott Smith, ’92, Sewickly, Pa.; Brent Walling, ’98, Lakewood; Stephen Mesik ’12, Strongsville; Amanda Gerstnecker, ’06, Freedom, Pa.; Bob McGovern, ’06, ’07, of Youngstown; Tony Spano ’04, Youngstown; Cynthia O’Connor, Brookfield; Mike Ray, ’01, Youngstown; Zach Brown, ’10, Kent; Bob Harvey, ’00, Youngstown; Marla Carano, ’01, Poland; Phil Kidd, Youngstown; and Scott Schulick, ’94, ’96, Youngstown.

Nov. 16 and Nov. 23 – Terrace Dinners before YSU home football games.

Nov. 22 – Veterans and ROTC reunion.

Feb. 23 – Youngstown Day in Punta Gorda, Fla. Additional events in other Florida cities are being planned for the days leading up to Youngstown Day. Watch for updates.

SaveDate!

THE

Six Join Alumni Society Board

The following six new members have been selected to serve on YSU’s Alumni Society Board:

Edward J. Brannan, ’78 BSA, Criminal JusticeR. Keith Evans, ’64 BSB, AccountingBenjamin A. Kyle, ’04 BSB, FinanceAtty. Brian J. Macala, ’89 AB, HistorySarah Poulton, ’10 MA, EnglishJanel Rice, ’94 BSB, ManagementEvans and Brannan are replacing two board members

who resigned, so they will serve the remaining two years of the former members’ six-year terms. Kyle, Macala, Poulton and Rice will serve until 2019.

Noreen Moderalli ’75, has assumed the duties of Alumni Society president, replacing Shelly LaBerto ’90.

sports newspenguin

Penguin Home Basketball Tip Offs!Coming off two exciting 2012-13

seasons, YSU men’s and women’s basketball teams have plenty of home games scheduled this season. The women, under first-year Head Coach John Barnes, play 17 home games this

year; the men, led by veteran Head Coach Jerry Slocum, play 15 contests at Beeghly

Center. For ticket information contact the YSU Athletic Ticket Office, 330-941-1978, or visit YSUsports.com.

 Women’s BasketballNov. 13 vs. BuffaloNov. 20 vs. Northern KentuckyNov. 30 vs. West VirginiaDec. 4 vs. Miami (Ohio)Dec. 8 vs. Cincinnati Dec. 13 vs. Ohio Valley Dec. 16 vs. Malone Jan. 4 vs. IUPUI Jan. 16 vs. Green Bay Jan. 18 vs. Milwaukee Jan. 25 vs. Oakland Jan. 29 vs. Detroit Feb. 15 vs. Valparaiso Feb. 27 vs. UICMarch 5 vs. Wright StateMarch 8 vs. Cleveland State

YSU’s 2013-14 athletic programs boast a diverse group of student-athletes representing 23 states and 15 foreign countries.

Nineteen foreign student-athletes are competing as members of the swimming and diving, softball, men’s tennis and women’s tennis programs.

Of the countries represented, Germany has three student athletes at YSU, Sweden and Canada have two each and the following countries have one each: Ukraine, Honduras, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Austria, Zimbabwe, Trinidad and Tobago, Romania, Sweden, Uruguay and Russia.

Here’s the state breakdown for this season’s athletes: Ohio – 166; Pennsylvania – 52; Florida – 21; California – 16; Michigan – 11; Indiana – seven; Illinois and Virginia – six; South Carolina – four; Kansas and New York – three; Texas, Nevada, New Jersey, Kentucky and Wisconsin – two; Arizona, Missouri, West Virginia, Hawaii, Utah, Washington and Georgia – one.

This year’s diverse group of YSU student athletes includes, from left, men, Kendrick Perry, Eric Rupe, Bobby Grace, Torrian Pace, Jay Jakovina and Sebastian Hagn; and women, clockwise from top left, Allison Ludwig, Sarah Ingalls, Missy Hundelt, Allison Mitzel, Kelli Young, Ciara Jarrett, Hanna Martin, Samantha Hamilton, Carolyn Jesko, Jennifer Neider.

Beeghly Center has a new scoreboard, featuring enhanced video capabilities, shown here during the YSU Invitational volleyball tournament on Labor Day weekend. The board shows replays of the games, spotlights fans in the crowd, displays in-game promotions and improves sponsorship opportunities.

New Scoreboard for Beeghly Center

Student Athletes Represent 23 States, 15 Countries

Men’s BasketballNov. 14 vs. Warren WilsonNov. 20 vs. ThielNov. 23 vs. WestminsterNov. 30 vs. Austin PeayDec. 4 vs. Robert MorrisDec. 17 vs. Bethune-CookmanDec. 29 vs. South DakotaJan. 13 vs. Cleveland StateJan. 18 vs. DetroitJan. 23 vs. ValparaisoJan. 25 vs. Wright StateFeb. 13 vs. Green BayFeb. 15 vs. UICFeb. 20 vs. MilwaukeeMarch 1 vs. Oakland

28 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

FALL 2013 29

’60sWilliam A. Hartman of

Jackson Center, Pa., ’64 BS in mechanical engineering, is president, chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors for Premier Biomedical Inc. He is also acting vice president of the company’s cancer division in El Paso, Texas. Previously, Hartman was chief operating officer of Nanologix, Inc. and held executive and engineering positions at TRW Automotive. He holds an MS in industrial administration/management from the University of Michigan.

David J. Prox of Hernando, Fla., ’64 BE in civil engineering, recently earned a black belt in Taekwondo. He is a former long-distance runner who accumulated a total of 50,000 miles running. Now employed as a transit driver by Citrus County, Fla., Prox previously worked as a civil engineer in Pittsburgh and as a medical

book salesman.

Rev. Larry L. Lewis of Kennesaw, Ga., ’66 BA in liberal arts, has retired from the ministry as a senior pastor serving churches in Ohio, Michigan, Florida and Georgia but remains active as a special education teacher. In 2008 he was

chosen to serve as the Protestant Chaplain aboard the Crystal Serenity on its 110-day world cruise. Lewis has a Master of Divinity from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, a Doctor of Ministry degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and did post-doctoral work at the University of Georgia in Athens. He is also licensed as a nursing home administrator.

’70sDonald Graham of Pepper Pike, Ohio, ’71

BSBA, was presented the Small Business Administration’s 2013 Minority Small Business Champion Award for Region V. As director of the Northeast Ohio Regional Minority Business Assistance Center at the Urban League of Greater Cleveland, he has been a champion for small business throughout his career. Graham is also an adjunct professor of business at Lakeland Community College and a guest lecturer at the Williamson College of Business Administration at YSU.

Sam Amendolara of Canfield, ’75 BSBA, was named Lawyer of the Year for 2013 by the Mahoning County Bar Association. He received his juris doctorate from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He serves as a Juvenile Court Magistrate in Mahoning County and has a private law practice in Youngstown. Previously, he was an Assistant Attorney General for the state of Ohio, served as a member of the Mahoning Bar Association Board of Trustees and as its president from 1995-96.

Julia G. Burnett of Hueytown, Ala., ’76 AAS, has earned national board certification and the credential of Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in primary care. After completing her associate degree in nursing at YSU, she earned a BS in nursing from Wayne State University and an MS in nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is employed with Morgan Pediatrics in Ensley, Ala.

’80s Joseph A. Castrodale of Cleveland, ’80 BSBA,

and Lori A. Pittman of Cleveland, ’80 BSBA, were both selected recently by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2014, a highly-regarded referral publication in the legal profession. They are attorneys with the law firm of Ulmer

& Berne LLP.

Ruth Williamson of Columbiana, ’80 AAS, ’83 BS in nursing, is a registered nurse

in the outpatient cardiac rehabilitation department at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown. She is certified in cardiac rehabilitation by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Her twin children, a son and a daughter, are students at YSU.

James M. Gasior of Canfield, ’82 BSBA, represented Cortland Bancorp as a presenter at the 2013 INVESTOhio Equity Conference, held Sept. 12 in Columbus. Gasior is president and chief executive officer for Cortland

Bancorp and is a CPA. Cortland Bancorp, is the holding company for the Cortland Savings and Banking Company.

Richard T. Hamilton Jr. of Cleveland, ’84 BA, a prominent federal prosecutor, has joined the law firm of Ulmer & Berne LLP to chair the firm’s white-collar practice group. Now based in the firm’s Cleveland office, Hamilton spent most of his 20-plus-year legal career as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and, most recently, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio. Hamilton earned an LLM from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a juris doctorate from the Duquesne University School of Law.

Shop Promotes Original ArtStephanie Miller likes to see originality and

creativity in home décor, and that’s a primary goal of her new retail shop, Wonderstruck Artisan Market & Classes, that opened at 3649 Canfield Road this summer in The Shoppes at Coal Creek, Canfield. Miller, ’06 BFA with a concentration in art and technology, lives in Austintown. “Our goal is to bring back originality in the consumer’s home, rather than mass produced products from a retail giant,” she said. Wonderstruck offers handmade arts and creative crafts from local vendors, art pieces from around the world and classes for adults and children.

William A. Hartman

Rev. Larry L. Lewis

James M. Gasior

Richard T. Hamilton Jr.

David J. Prox

notesclass

Stephanie Miller

30 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

Alumna Leads Military Police CompanyAshley Jenkins of Fort Stewart, Ga., ‘06 BSA in forensic science, has completed her seventh year in the U.S. Army and is now serving as Company Commander of the 293rd Military Police Company, based in Fort Stewart and comprised of 168 soldiers at full-strength. Jenkins was deployed twice with the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division – first, in 2008, as a platoon leader working with the Iraqi Highway Police to conduct security patrols; then, in 2009-10, when she was in charge of a special weapons exploitation team that covered all of Al Anbar Province. Her teams responded to IED (improvised explosive device)-related events and worked with the Iraqi Army and police, helping to develop their crime scene skills and evidence collection skills. In 2011-12, before accepting her current assignment, she was selected to attend the Marine Expeditionary Warfare School.

Paul Abraham of St. Clairsville, Ohio, ’85 BS, has been appointed dean of Ohio University Eastern. Previously, he was associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor of mathematics at Ohio University Lancaster. He has a PhD and an MA in mathematics, both from Kent State University.

Michael A. Perry of Hilliard, Ohio, ’86 BSEd, retired recently from the Dublin City Schools as the most winning boys basketball coach in Dublin Karrer High School’s history. In addition, he was selected to develop and implement a program in the Dublin school district that

fosters greater comprehension in science and social studies. Michael completed extensive post-graduate studies at Ohio State University and earned a master's degree in educational administration from Ashland University.

David Watson of Columbus, Ohio, ’86 BSBA, has joined GBQ, an accounting and consulting firm in central Ohio, as a director in its credit union practice. He has more than 20 years experience assisting credit unions

with regulatory compliance matters and improving operations and has served a key role in the successful implementation of financial turnaround initiatives for credit unions.

Michael Manojlovich of New Kensington, Pa., ’87 BS in computer science, joined the faculty of Penn State University New Kensington as an instructor in information sciences and technology. Previously, he was on the Penn State Greater Allegheny faculty for 12 years and spent 27 years working with information technology in the steel and manufacturing industries. He has an MS in information science from the University of Pittsburgh, where he is also a doctoral candidate.

’90sDorothy Collins of

Boardman, ’90 BSEd, ’94 MSEd, has been appointed dean of TRiO programs and academic advising at Eastern Gateway Community College. Collins, who also holds a doctorate degree in education from Capella University, has been working in academic support services for eight years. Previously, she was a career consultant for the Mahoning and Columbiana Training Association, an assistant women's basketball coach and coordinator of multi-cultural student services for the Center of Student Progress at YSU.

Lauren (Boppel) Notestine of Toledo, Ohio, ’91 BSEd in elementary and special education, is a speech and language pathologist with NOSLARS - Northwest Ohio Speech Language Rehabilitation Services. She earned two master’s degrees in education from the University of Toledo, one in reading and one in speech and language pathology, and works with clients ranging from age 2 to 18.

Laurie Brlas of Denver, ‘92 BSBA in accounting, has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Newmont Mining Corp. Previously she served from 2006 to 2012 as executive vice president and president of global operations for Cliffs Natural Resources. She is a CPA and a Certified Management Accountant.

Gary Heasley of Wyomissing, Pa., ’93 BSBA in accounting, is Carpenter Technology Corp.’s new senior vice president of performance-engineered products. He has responsibility for several Carpenter subsidiaries, which together account for 25 percent of the company’s total revenue. Previously, Heasley was executive vice president, strategic planning and business development, of Steel Dynamics Inc. in Fort Wayne, Ind., and president of its subsidiary, New Millennium Buildings Systems. He is also a CPA.

Annie Lois (Hughes) Hines of New Castle, Pa., ’95 ASAS in social services, is a mail supervisor for Treloar & Heisel, Inc. She has a bachelor’s degree in human resources management from Geneva College and holds a commissioned pastor certification

Paul Abraham

Michael A. Perry

Ashley Jenkins

Kelsey Gurganus

Dorothy Collins

Lauren (Boppel) Notestine

David Watson

Class Notes

Alumna Runs in Boston MarathonBenefit

Kelsey Gurganus of Indianapolis, Ind., ’09 BS in biology, was among the runners who participated in One Run for Boston, a coast-to-coast relay that raised funds for those most affected by the Boston Marathon bombings. Gurganus played basketball as a YSU student from 2006-09, and she continues to be physically active as a runner. She competed in 15 races in 2012, including one marathon and six half marathons, and qualified to compete in the 2014 Boston Marathon. Gurganus earned a master’s degree in public health in epidemiology and previously worked as an epidemiologist at the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services in Oklahoma City. She is now employed with the Indiana State Department of Health.

FALL 2013 31

Class Notes

If you and your spouse are YSU graduates, you can be part of Penguin Mates. Tell us your love story in 300 words or less, and send it with a current photograph and/or wedding photo. The photo should be a close-up, head-and-shoulders shot; if emailed, it must be a high-resolution jpeg, at least 3.5”x 5” and 300 dpi. Be sure to include your degrees, graduation years, city of residence, an email address and phone number so that we can contact you. Send to: cevinarsky@ysu.edu or Editor, YSU Magazine, One University Plaza, Youngstown, OH 44515.

Penguin

at YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

Sean Michael Starkey

Heather Chunn

Crissie McCree

Elizabeth Thiry

How We Met… This summer we asked married YSU couples to tell us their love stories for our new Penguin Mates feature, and we received more replies than we could accommodate in print. So, we’re introducing the couples who wrote us here, and we invite you to visit ysumagazine.org, our YSU Magazine website, for all their stories and a few more photos.

Neil Ciminero, ’72 BA in philosophy, and Sandra Elser Ciminero, ’73 BA in art, married on Bastille Day, July 14, 1973. They live in North Lima, Ohio.

Kenneth Centorame, ’74 AAS, ’77 BSAS in criminal justice, and Susan Colucci Centorame,

’79 AAS, ’95 BS in nursing, were married Aug.14, 1982. She lives in Canfield, Ohio; he is deceased.

Jeff Abood, ’85 BSAS in independent curriculum, Denise Ashcraft Abood, ’84, in AAS in

nursing, were married in 1982. They live in Silver Lake, Ohio.

Thomas Rohanna, ’87 BSBA in transportation management, and Deborah Schwartz Rohanna,

’85 BSEd in secondary mathematics, were married in June 1986. They live in Waynesburg, Pa.

Nick Forro, ’05 BA in marketing, and Erin Carter Forro, ’06 BSEd in special education, were married June 23, 2006, in Fayetteville, Ark.

They live in Valhalla, N.Y.

Mike Phillips, ’06 BSE, and Michelle Rutushin Phillips, ’05 BSEd, were married Sept. 8, 2007.

They live in Austintown, Ohio.

Robert Halicky, '09 BSAS in exercise science, and Sarah Goodspeed Halicky, '12 BS in nursing, were married May 10, 2013, in Pine Knoll Shores, N.C.

They live in Poland, Ohio.

Patrick Wilkens, ‘12 BS in criminal justice, and Kirstin Walker Wilkens, ’12 BS in

exercise science, were married July 18, 2013, at Wedderburn Castle in Scotland, Kirstin's home country.

They live in Canfield, Ohio.

from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. An elder at Bethel Lighthouse Ministries in Youngstown, Hines is also an elder in the Shenango Presbytery branch of the Presbyterian Church USA.

Shawn Michael Starkey of Ferndale, Mich., ’95 BA in professional writing and editing, was named director of marketing and communications for the Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.

Previously, he served as executive director of public relations, marketing and legislative affairs at St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron, Mich.

Heather Chunn of Boardman, ’98 BSBA, ‘03 MBA, has joined the Youngstown State University Foundation as a Senior Development Officer. Previously, she worked in YSU’s Office of Development,

where she had eight years of fundraising experience, assisting with the Centennial Campaign, securing the $1.2 million Kresge Challenge grant and more than $3 million in major and planned gifts.

’00s Crissie McCree of Wilmington, N.C., ’00 BS in geography, ’08 BSEd, released an album in January titled “New Day,” and in July she won the Carolina Music Award for Rock Female. Previously, she worked on

Mahoning County’s computerized mapping project and taught four years as an elementary school teacher in Fayetteville, N.C. She quit teaching to pursue her music career and continues to perform live in support of her album.

Elizabeth Thiry of Columbia, Md., ’00 BS in computer science, ‘06 MBA, has completed her PhD from Penn State University in information sciences and technology with

32 YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

Dan O'Rourke of Wooster, ’79 BA in speech communication, has co-authored the book, A Good Town Speaking Well: A History of the Wooster Speech and Debate Team, with his son, Morgan Bostdorff O'Rourke. The book recounts the 100-year history of forensics at Wooster High School – where the speech team has made 63 appearances at the national tournament, more than any other school in the country. Through a special arrangement with the publisher, the Wooster Book Company (www.woosterbook.com), 20 percent of the book proceeds will be donated to the Wooster Speech and Debate program. O’Rourke earned his master’s degree at Bowling Green State University and a PhD at Purdue. He is an associate professor at Ashland University.

Susan (Williams) Farah of Blowing Rock, N.C., ’87 AAS in nursing, has published her first book, titled 27 E Words That Will Change Your Life. Farah said the book asks readers to take an honest look at their lives and their level of engagement, and then offers suggestions on how they can live more deliberately and fully-aligned with their life purpose. The book is available at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com. Farah is employed by Glenbridge Health & Rehabilitation.

Class Notes

Help YSU Magazine share your career news in Class Notes.

You can visit ysumagazine.org, click on the “Tell Us Your Story” icon and fill out the form online. Or, mail your news

to: YSU Magazine, YSU Market-ing Communications, One

University Plaza, Youngstown, OH 44555. Please include your degree,

graduation year and an email address or telephone number.

a focus on human computer interaction. She is now working as a user experience engineer for Next Century Corp. and is a professor for Penn State's world campus.

Ryan Ghizzoni of Berea, Ohio, ’02 BSBA in accounting, has joined the Berea City School District as treasurer/chief financial officer. Previously, he served as treasurer of the Fairview Park Schools for five years. In 2011, he was named Outstanding Treasurer/CFO of the Year by the Ohio Association of School Business Officials.

Jason Gray of Champion, ’02 MSEd, has been named superintendent of the Trumbull County Career and Technical Center. Gray also earned his administrative and superintendent credentials at YSU. A former social studies teacher, Gray joined TCTC in 2002 and previously served as director and as interim superintendent.

Ketuan Baldwin of Renton, Wash., ’04 AAS, ’06 BAS in computer information systems, ’12 MBA, recently accepted a software development engineering position with Microsoft. He will concentrate on big data initiatives for the manufacturing and supply chain management teams that focus on shipping

devices, along with digital supply chain subscription services for Office360, Skype and Outlook.

Patrick H. Pisciuneri of Pittsburgh, ’06 BS in mechanical engineering, has accepted a research faculty position in the Center for Simulation & Modeling at the University of Pittsburgh, where he recently completed his doctorate degree in mechanical engineering. He also earned an MS in

engineering from the same university in 2008.

’10sKrystle Jo Kimes of Warren, ’11 BA in

telecommunications, is a television news producer for WKBN/WYFX/WYTV/MyYTV

in Youngstown. The television news team won the Associated Press award for Best News Organization in Ohio.

Lindsay Liddle of Brooklyn, Ohio, ’12 BSEd in middle childhood math and science education, recently accepted a position at Citizen’s Leadership Academy in Cleveland, a middle school that specializes in a teaching styled called Expeditionary Learning. She teaches sixth grade math and science and has decorated her classroom with a YSU Penguin theme. Previously, Liddle taught seventh grade math in the Warren City Schools.

Jessica Valsi of Youngstown, ’12 BS in political science, was selected to participate in the 2014 Ohio Legislative Service Commission Legislative Fellowship Program, a nationally recognized and highly competitive program in Columbus that gives participants first-hand experience in state government. Valsie is one of 24 fellows selected for the

professional, paid, full-time positions. She will begin the 13-month program in December.

Brandi Brown of Pomona, Calif., ’13 BA in communications studies, who was a record-breaking women’s basketball

Jessica Valsi

Brandi Brown

Patrick H. Pisciuneri

Susan (Williams) Farah

player for the Penguins, has signed a contract to play professionally in Sweden starting this fall. She will play with the Solna Vikings of the Damligan, Sweden's top league for women. Brown, the 2013 Horizon League Player of the Year, is the first YSU women's basketball player to sign a professional contract since Heather Karner in 2008.

Jordan Uhl of Washington, D.C., ’13 BA in political science, has been hired as media liaison for PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Washington. He handles media requests, schedules interviews with PETA spokespeople and occasionally gets involved with activism and campaigning. Uhl, who landed the position just a few days after completing his senior year in May, said dogs are welcome in the PETA office and staff members are all vegan.

Jason Gray

Ketuan Baldwin

Ryan Ghizzoni

authorsalumni Create your own ‘Pete’!

Jordan Uhl

1Beak & Hat Puff: glue

together, fold black flaps

Back

Feet

Head/Torso

Flippe

rs: f

old

Lowe

r To

rso

KEYfold here cut slit

fold flap, glue here

Create your own ‘Pete’!

Instructions: 1. Tools needed: scissors, glue or glue gun,

craft knife or sharp razor.

2. Cut out all pieces. Use razor or craft knife to cut slits at solid white lines for placement of beak, wings and hat puff.

3. Fold and crease all dashed lines, numbered flaps and tabs.

4. Glue together the beak and hat puff pieces, insert in slits and glue in place.

5. Fold flippers in half, insert in slits on sides, with fold facing front, and glue in place.

6. Working from top to bottom, match the numbers on the flaps and tabs, assemble and glue the parts together.

Here’s your chance to add to your penguin collection. Assemble a 3D Pete with the pieces on this page, or visit www.ysumagazine.org to find printable parts for both Pete and Penny. If you print your pieces from the website, we suggest heavy paper. We used glossy photo paper to create the Pete and Penny pictured on the inside front cover of this issue.

Designed by Alexandra Pasula, Graphic/Interactive Design student

Office of University DevelopmentOne University PlazaYoungstown, Ohio 44555

In the top photo, dated 1944, Louis A. Deesz, Dean of the William Rayen School of Engineering, looks on as a Youngstown College student works with wiring on an electrical device. Deesz served as dean of the engineering school from 1943 until his death in 1950. He was particularly interested in electrical engineering, and the electrical laboratory in the Rayen building was renamed in his memory the year he died. In the photo at right, first published in Youngstown’s daily newspaper, The Vindicator, on Nov. 28, 1943, student Mary Dingledy wrinkles her nose as she sniffs pyridine, a chemical known for its unpleasant odor. The photo was used to illustrate an article on technical training available at Youngstown College during World War II, when courses in chemistry and metallurgy offered by the engineering, science, management, and war-training program were government-sponsored and tuition-free. Women were encouraged to enroll in science courses at the time and to make themselves available to local companies who needed chemists to help in the war effort.

Science at Youngstown College, 1943-44