< 1 min read
UConn Cares. For the month of April, join alumni, friends, and families to get involved in community service with your local alumni network.
UConn Gives, UConn’s first-ever giving day.
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3 min read
Since 2016, the Hartford Promise scholarship fund has helped open doors for hundreds of Hartford students to attend college.
Now, thanks to Rick ’78 (LAW) and MaryEllen Thibodeau ’85 (LAW), a new scholarship will help these scholars pursue a graduate degree from UConn’s School of Law.
The couple, School of Law alums and longtime Connecticut residents, recently established the Richard E. Thibodeau and MaryEllen Thibodeau Scholarship Fund. It is the first UConn graduate school scholarship that will primarily benefit Hartford Promise scholarship recipients. The first year for eligible recipients for law school will be in the 2018-19 academic year.
“We feel very strongly that certain institutions and professions that provide a public service, such as the armed forces, government, and law, should generally reflect the population that they serve,” MaryEllen said. “We hope our gift will give some young men and women the ability to attend the UConn School of Law, to have a successful career in Connecticut, and provide future opportunities for the generations to follow.”
The Thibodeaus set up their endowment via an IRA charitable rollover, combining convenience with tax advantages. Donors who are 70½ and older can make a gift that fulfills their required minimum distribution, but is not treated as taxable income. Even donors who don’t itemize can benefit from this opportunity. Donors can distribute up to $100,000 a year to a charity.Learn More
This gift could help make a difference for Hartford Promise scholars. A recent report by the National Association for Law Placement shows a slow pace in growth of diversity among law firms. Additionally, the School of Law notes that pipeline programs, which provide access to students who might not otherwise consider law as a profession, and financial support are critical in opening doors for underrepresented students.
“We want young people to understand that it is possible to get through high school, go to college, and thereafter enroll in law school,” said Karen Demeola, Assistant Dean for Enrollment and Students, UConn School of Law and President, Connecticut Bar Association. “Removing barriers to success, in particular the financial obligation, is so important to students’ academic achievement.”
“We’re deeply grateful for Rick and MaryEllen’s most generous support of the School of Law,” said Dean Timothy Fisher, UConn School of Law. “This scholarship will help Hartford students further their education as they prepare for a lifetime of fulfilling service in the legal profession. We thank Rick and MaryEllen for their transformative gift, and look forward to welcoming recipients.”
Rick and MaryEllen have given to UConn for more than 30 years, inspired by their parents’ example of paying it forward.
“While neither of our parents had much money, they gave what they could of both money and time to the organizations that were important to them and we observed that,” Rick said.
The two credited the School of Law as the foundation for their successful careers. Rick owned his own tax and investment services practice for almost 20 years, and MaryEllen worked as a transactions lawyer for several Connecticut companies.
“I enjoyed the intellectual challenge and rigorous academic atmosphere, and learned the importance of considering various points of view and the need to be prepared,” MaryEllen said. “UConn Law opened up the opportunity for me to have a challenging and interesting career.”
Rick and MaryEllen enjoy the opportunity to help future legal scholars and hope others will follow their lead.
“We would encourage potential donors, whether a UConn Law graduate or not, to reflect on the importance of having a first-class state University with a first-class law school,” Rick said. “Education is the door that opens opportunities and breaks down barriers to success.”
For more information about the Hartford Promise scholarship program, visit www.hartfordpromise.org.
5 min read
Was there something in the water in Castleman?
Joking aside, the School of Engineering’s main classroom building produced an unusual number of CEOs from chemical engineering in the early ’80s.
At least three have become leaders of industry. Two are CEOs and one is a managing partner in a large law firm. That’s a relatively large percentage of their graduating class.
Why so many?
Well, Mark Vergnano ’80, Frank Bergonzi ’83, and Michael Cantor ’80, ’83 JD say it was the combination of UConn’s top-notch engineering professors, a rigorous course load, and the discipline to handle it.
“What led to my success was the opportunity to take a lot of different types of engineering courses: physical, chemical, organic, thermodynamics, and civil. And you’ve got to be proficient in math. It was a great foundation for a lot of the things that go into running a business,” said Bergonzi, CEO & President of Azelis Americas.
The three leaders remember the chemical engineering curriculum being so difficult that their entering class of 100 whittled down to 34 by the time they graduated.
Bergonzi remembers the first day in his chemistry class in a big hall full of students.
“The professor said, ‘Look to your left. Look to your right. One of you won’t be here in a year,'” he said.
They got through the four years by forming study groups, spending a lot of time in the library, and dedicating themselves to studying.
“Engineering to me is a discipline about discipline. It’s about logic, and running a business is very logical,” said Vergnano, President and CEO of The Chemours Co., a global chemistry company.
Cantor, who went into law after graduating and now heads the intellectual property law firm Cantor Colburn LLP, agreed.
“I had to learn how to be a disciplined problem-solver. That skill set—discipline and problem-solving—is transferable,” said Cantor, who went into patent law and helped grow his Hartford-based firm from half a dozen attorneys to more than 100 today.
Bergonzi joined Union Carbide in Danbury, Conn. after graduating and became a regional manager at age 28. He said his decision to get into management early and hold a series of management jobs and positions in various companies gave him the experience he needed to become a CEO.
The three leaders have something else in common. They each married UConn grads. Vergnano and Bergonzi met their wives in college. Cantor met his wife, Shari, a CPA, who is today the mayor of West Hartford, Conn., shortly after graduating when they were both working in Hartford.
“There is no question in our minds that we are who we are because of UConn,” Cantor said of himself and his wife. “Socio-economic diversity at UConn was a really important part of that. Everybody felt that they could do as well as their peers at Ivy League schools. There was a hunger to achieve in their respective fields.”
All three leaders are pleased with how far the Engineering School has evolved since their days in the 80s when slide rules were just being replaced by calculators and students still programmed in Fortran.
The school, which just celebrated its 100th anniversary, has greatly expanded its faculty and undergraduate enrollment. It just opened a $62 million engineering and science building and is a key player in the new Connecticut Technology Park under construction in Storrs.
“I could not be prouder of UConn Engineering,” Cantor said. “It’s becoming a global powerhouse.”
Here’s a closer look at the path each took.
President and CEO, the Chemours Co.
Vergnano landed a job at DuPont after graduating and quickly became interested in the business side of the operation. He enrolled in an evening program at Virginia Commonwealth University to earn his MBA. He built his resume by taking various manufacturing, technology, sales, and marketing assignments at DuPont around the United States and Switzerland, running progressively more complex business units.
When DuPont decided to spin off Chemours as a start-up in 2015, he jumped at the chance to run it. Chemours has more than 7,000 employees and generates $6 billion in revenues.
He and his wife, Betsy (Reddington) Vergnano ’81 (CLAS), live in West Chester, Pa., and have two adult daughters.
CEO & President of Azelis Americas
Upon graduating, Bergonzi took a job in chemical sales at Union Carbide in Danbury, Conn., and became a regional manager there five years later. He steadily worked his way up through the ranks by taking a series of important positions at other Fortune 100 companies, eventually becoming President and CEO of KODA Distribution Group in 2012. In 2015, KODA was acquired by Azelis Americas, a chemical distribution company based in Stamford, Conn., and Bergonzi became CEO and President.
Bergonzi lives in Westport, Conn., with his wife, Mary-Lisa (Shukis) Bergonzi ’84 (ENG), also a chemical engineering major, and they have three adult children. When he’s not working, he likes to go boating and perform occasionally as lead singer in a Bruce Springsteen tribute band.
Co-Managing Partner, Cantor Colburn LLP
When he was still at UConn, Cantor befriended some grad students in chemical engineering who told him about the field of intellectual property law. After graduating, Cantor decided to enroll in law school and specialize in patent law, using his expertise in chemical and materials engineering. He then joined a small patent law firm where he worked for Dave Fishman ’61 JD, who became his mentor. Cantor eventually became co-managing partner of the firm together with a colleague, Phil Colburn. They built the firm into the fastest growing patent law firm in the country. Cantor is also an Adjunct Professor at UConn Law. He is on the advisory boards of the schools of law and engineering, and he was inducted into UConn Engineering’s Hall of Fame.
Cantor and his wife, Shari (Granow) ’81 (BUS), live in West Hartford, Conn. and have four adult sons, two of whom are UConn grads. Besides being the Mayor of West Hartford, Shari is also a UConn Trustee. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family at their summer house on Cape Cod.
2 min read
When Rita Matta heard the news, she cried for hours.
The relief was that intense.
Matta ’16 (ENG) had just been told she would be getting a scholarship from UConn alum Russ St. John to help pay for her senior year at UConn.
After spending three years juggling babysitting and tutoring jobs, Matta felt the pressure melt away.
“I was concerned about paying for my next year of college. It was a huge relief to me,” she said. “I remember calling my mom and crying for hours.”
Matta’s mother had been diagnosed with aggressive ovarian cancer. Besides the emotional drain of dealing with the disease, the family was swamped with medical bills.
The scholarship relieved the pressure on her then and is still making an impact today. It’s allowed Matta, 22, to continue her education and pursue a career in biomedical engineering that will likely save lives.
Now, as a doctoral student at Yale, Matta is helping to develop a minimally invasive, innovative treatment that could help stroke victims recover.
She decided to pursue bioengineering as a career field because she had been impressed that a robot was used to perform the cancer surgery on her mother.
“It was performed so accurately,” she said. “She had little to no scar tissue. That was really awesome to me because I had no exposure to or any knowledge of robotic technology before that,” she said.
Articulate, serious, and driven, Matta feels lucky to be chosen as a doctoral student to work on this innovative stroke treatment. She is humble, but to anyone who knows her, there’s no denying that she’s proved herself more than worthy. She’s an academic powerhouse who works extremely hard and has an insatiable scientific curiosity.
Her supervisor and mentor at Yale describes her as open-minded, persistent, and willing to take a risk.
“Scientifically and also personality-wise, she is very kind and engaging,” said Anjelica Gonzalez, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Yale. “She has an excitement and enthusiasm to learn about science and she is willing to challenge paradigms.”
Matta attributes her success to her family’s deep-seated appreciation of education. Her mother and aunts and uncles all are immigrants from war-torn Beirut who successfully graduated from college.
“I have a hard time saying no,” Matta said. “I set high standards for myself and for my work. It’s just the way that I was raised—to keep aiming for the best and not settling for anything but my full effort.”
Life has turned the corner for her mother, too. She is in remission and Matta has a new hope. Inspired by St. John, ’80 (ENG), ’85 MBA, she hopes to one day pay it forward and help another UConn student further their education.
Meanwhile, she is helping in another way. She volunteers for an outreach program that encourages middle-school-aged girls in the New Haven region to enter STEM careers. When it comes to giving back, there’s no doubt she’s just getting started.
2 min read
During a recent visit back to UConn’s School of Engineering, Russ St. John ’80 (ENG) ’85 MBA met several remarkable students he supported with a scholarship donation.
One in particular stood out.
“I remember a young lady who said she wanted to help provide clean water in Latin America. She was talking about taking her education and using it to help lots of people. It was inspiring,” he said.
Russ was so impressed, he decided to give a permanent scholarship to the School of Engineering as part of his legacy. With help from the UConn Foundation, he arranged to leave a gift to the School of Engineering to create the scholarship in his will.
“What better a way to leave a legacy?” he said. “It really attached to my heart right away. I decided this is what I want to do.”
Russ, who was raised in Southington, Conn., was the first in his family to go college. He didn’t receive a scholarship and paid his way through school, balancing his heavy academic load with weekday jobs in a University lab and weekend shifts at a local Howard Johnson’s restaurant. His scholarship will pave a smoother path for other promising engineering students for decades to come.
When he first decided to leave a gift to the University in his estate, he wasn’t sure how to do it. He said the UConn Foundation staff was helpful in outlining his options and explaining the tax benefits of planned gifts, such as IRAs.
“I’d also encourage anyone who is thinking about it to go to the school they graduated from for a tour. Go meet the students and talk to them. It’s inspiring,” he said.
Russ double-majored in mechanical engineering and material science and immediately got a job designing jet engines at GE, where he worked for 21 years. He was then recruited for a job in Minneapolis for Katun, a technology provider for the printing industry. He later joined Entrust Datacard as chief marketing officer.
In their free time, he and his wife, Elaine, a nurse, like to volunteer at a local alternative high school, helping students earn their GEDs. Russ also makes time for travel. In April, he enjoyed a two-week trek in Nepal, hiking up to 15,300 feet in the Himalayas.
“It was quite strenuous,” he said. “It was just a great experience, meeting Buddhist monks, spending time with kind and loving people, and just living very lean.”
Wherever he has gone, his UConn education has been a great passport to success, he said.
“UConn is a great enabler because it offers a superb education that’s cost-effective. But there are students who still need help. Scholarships provide the assistance they need,” he said.
2 min read
Sisters Lori and Treacy Riiska may as well be twins.
They have the same mannerisms, the same voice, and they finish each other’s sentences.
They’re both accountants, love golf, and take vacations together.
Warm and outgoing, Lori ’84 (BUS) and Treacy ’89 (BUS) are both loyal Husky fans, active alums, and burgeoning philanthropists.
Naturally, they signed up right away when they heard that the UConn Foundation formed a Women and Philanthropy group to raise scholarships for female students.
“Lori and I had been talking about starting a scholarship but we couldn’t agree on what type,” Treacy explained. “It’s just one of those lightbulb moments when all of a sudden you know exactly how to best help. All of a sudden, with this new initiative with Women and Philanthropy, we had a common goal. It was just so obvious.”
They donated $50,000 to set up a need-based, endowed scholarship for female UConn students through the UConn Women and Philanthropy initiative. They said they want to give other women the same opportunity they had to go to college and pursue their dreams.
“If you can better one person, two people, it’s empowering,” said Lori, who sits on the UConn Foundation’s board of directors. “You can get them in the door so they can become the successful person that they want to be.”
Both sisters have a strong, independent ease about them, qualities they attribute to their mother, Beverly.
“She just always had an independent side to her and passed that trait on to us. She’d tell us ‘be strong, be brave’ and ‘you’re responsible for yourself,’ ” Lori said.
In addition to an independence streak, accounting runs in the family as well. Their dad was a CPA, and so is their brother, Lori’s daughter, and Treacy’s son.
Both sisters have been math whizzes ever since they were kids.
“That side of my brain works better,” Lori explained. “It was an easy choice for me I just knew it was a better fit for me because I was good at it and comfortable with it.”
Lori partnered with her father, Oscar J. Riiska CPA, for many years and took over his Winsted-based firm when he died. She recently expanded the business, adding branches in Granby and Canaan. Treacy lives in Stamford, where she is a tax accountant and is currently developing a program to help people manage their finances.
Lori compares accounting to the mental challenge of solving a puzzle.
“You put together a puzzle every time you sit down at your desk,” Lori said. “Someone brings in their material. You take everything they gave you, use your knowledge, and you put it together. It’s a challenge.”
Lori has been involved alum for years, serving as president of the former Alumni Association and a member of the UConn Athletic Club Board. Treacy has become involved more recently and is excited about getting more involved with UConn’s Stamford branch.
Now in its second year, UConn Women and Philanthropy is focused on recruiting sustaining members who donate $500 each year for five years.
5 min read
Saturday Night Live veteran Bobby Moynihan ’99 (SFA), one of UConn’s most famous alums, moved to Los Angeles recently to star in the new CBS sitcom “Me, Myself & I.”
(And if that weren’t enough change, he just had a baby girl with his wife, actress Brynn O’Malley!)
The show tells the story of Alex Riley in different phases of his life, weaving together three story lines: Alex as a middle-schooler (played by Jack Dylan Grazer), as a 40-year-old inventor (Moynihan), and as a successful 65-year-old retiree (John Larroquette).
On SNL, he was famous for playing such characters as Drunk Uncle, Second Hand Reporter Anthony Crispino, and Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi. In a phone interview, he talked about both shows, an influential acting teacher, and his occasional pilgrimages to campus for a certain craving.
It’s been wonderful. I got very lucky with great writers and great cast. We’ve been having a wonderful time. It’s a lot less stressful than my last job, so it’s great.
SNL was a lot of crazy hours. It was every day pretty much for a couple months. This, not so much. This is very different. There are three different time lines so I don’t have to be there all the time. John and Jack take some of the brunt of that. It’s a lot less time as far as the hours go, so that’s been wonderful.
I’ve been doing SNL for about nine years. It was my life’s dream and I loved every second of it. It just felt like it was time to move on, but I hadn’t found anything that I liked. Then I read this script and I kind of fell in love with it. Dan Kopelman, the writer, did a fantastic job at writing a really funny and sweet script. It seemed like kind of a place where I was in my life right now, so I just went for it.
Yeah, it’s been great. It’s wonderful to not put on crazy costumes, but just put on jeans and a flannel shirt and be a dad.
Everyone keeps asking about it. I’m not really sure yet because all I do is work and take care of the baby, so it hasn’t really affected me at all yet. There are nights, I assume, I haven’t really been outside in a while. (Laughs). It’s been great so far. I enjoy driving. There’s been a lot of traffic here, so that’s good. (Laughs).
Of course. I’ll miss it for my entire life. It was extremely hard watching it go on the first week back. It was crazy. It felt very bizarre. It’s like watching your ex-girlfriend sleep with somebody else.
Drunk Uncle and some of the more obscure characters, like this character called Kirby and another one called Janet. Those were my favorites always to do. But it was more who you got to work with than the characters. I enjoyed doing stuff with someone like Bryan Tucker, one of the writers, and Colin Jost—just kind of pairing up with people. I had so much fun with Taran Killam and Mikey Day and those guys. It was a blast.
I think I just needed attention more than anything. I enjoyed comedy growing up. I grew up on stuff like the “Muppet Show” and “Mr. Show with Bob and David.” Comedy has always been in my household—watching Jonathan Winters and Carol Burnett. I grew up on it. I went to UConn for acting and then got out into the real world in New York. I ended up at the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy club. That place was the best. It was exactly what I was looking for.
Probably meeting (Professor Emeritus) Bob McDonald, one of my acting teachers, who kind of set me on the right path. He was always somebody who meant a lot to me and he was an amazing teacher. I learned so much from him alone and it made me realize there was a lot more out there than just straight acting. He taught me so much. I owe a lot to him. He was the best.
It was pretty great. I made a lot of very close friends at UConn that I still talk to today. One of my best friends, I see him all the time. We try and come up to UConn to get DP Dough (a calzone shop) when we can.
I haven’t been by in a while. I did read the Daily Campus article saying they didn’t like my show. That was a shame. (Laughs). It happens, I guess.
I was an acting major. I did plays and stuff there, musicals mostly. We also did some little shows, more like end-of-the-year plays just for acting majors. I didn’t really do improv itself until I found the Upright Citizens Brigade.
Work hard, find a place that you love, and find people who are like-minded and want to do the same thing as you. Spend as much time as you possibly can doing those things with those people and work as hard as you can at it. That’s what the Upright Citizens Brigade was for me—just finding a core group of friends who spent every night doing comedy under a grocery store in New York City.
4 min read
Most people would admit that the only time they interact with a pharmacist is picking up prescriptions at their local pharmacy. But that’s only part of the story.
According to Dr. Marie Smith ’77 (PHR), consumers see their pharmacist an average of 10 times more frequently than their primary care physician, meaning the pharmacist can play a crucial role in patient care.
As the Dr. Henry A. Palmer Endowed Professor in Community Pharmacy Practice, Dr. Smith researches ways in which pharmacists–and the overall transformation of pharmacy practice–can impact team-based healthcare delivery in community settings. She recently created a fellowship that’s currently held by Dr. Kate Steckowych ’13 (PHR), ’15 Pharm.D. The two are studying pharmacy practice transformation, specifically the integration of pharmacists in community-based health care settings, such as the primary care doctor’s office, and the communications between community pharmacists and primary care clinicians.
The UConn Foundation had the opportunity to sit down with the two researchers and alumnae to discuss their work.
How did this fellowship come about?
A. (Dr. Smith) It was a professional goal of mine to “pay it forward” and bring on another generation of pharmacist practitioner-researchers. Given the current changes in health care, I thought we should focus the fellowship on pharmacy practice transformation.
Q. What is the study of “practice transformation” and what are “patient care teams?”
A. (Dr. Smith) There are two aspects of practice transformation. First, we look at how health care is delivered today, and second, we look at how we pay for health care. We want to make sure that other health care professionals, payers, policy makers, and consumers understand how pharmacists can bring their unique skills and clinical expertise to health care teams.
In primary care settings, many times when somebody says we have team-based care, that means a doctor and nurse practitioner working together. What we’re seeing now in healthcare is that the team needs to be established around a patient’s specific care needs. If more than half your patients are taking multiple chronic medications, how can the pharmacist contribute as a team member? A pharmacist’s expertise in medication optimization and management is complementary to the skills of physicians and nurses practitioners. Pharmacists focus on identifying and resolving any medication-related problems, and avoiding unnecessary medication-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits.
Q. What are the challenges and opportunities facing the practice of pharmacy today?
A. (Dr. Steckowych) I think one of the challenges is recognizing what pharmacists bring to the table and how to best incorporate them into existing care teams. Based on a project Dr. Smith and I conducted this past year, it’s evident that patients don’t fully understand the value of their pharmacist as a member of their community healthcare team. Most patients still see pharmacists primarily as medication dispensers. They don’t realize that pharmacists check prescriptions for possible drug interactions or adverse reactions, and make recommendations to physicians when a safer medication is needed.
Q. What are the goals of your research?
A. (Dr. Smith) Our overall goal is to improve medication use and safety. In one project, we had students assisting us in a study of four common medication-related activities performed in a primary care doctor’s office. These activities included getting an accurate patient medication list, medication refills, managing blood thinners and vaccinations, and medication communications between a physician office and community pharmacies. Our findings led to some recommendations in medication-related workflow processes and efficiency, as well as providing educational resources for physicians, nurses, and medical assistants.
This type of health services research – collecting data in a “real-world” care setting to improve the quality of medication-related practices — also opened the eyes of the students to practice-based research that a pharmacist can perform. You could see the light bulb go off as students said, “this is really great, I didn’t know this was considered research.” It’s had an impact on our students, which I think is part of our mission as educator-researchers. Students were able to feature their research project as part of their job or pharmacy residency interviews.
Q. How does it feel to know you’ve made such an impact on students?
A. (Dr. Steckowych) It’s very gratifying to see that I have made an impact on the students whom I’ve worked with over the past year. I know that the type of research that I conduct is not commonly known to students and sometimes others within our profession. I am grateful that I have been able to incorporate students into my research endeavors and provide them with an understanding of what practice transformation looks like.
Q. You’re both UConn alumnae. What is it like to come back and conduct this research at your alma mater?
A. (Dr. Smith) First, I’ll just say it was very much an honor to come back to UConn as a faculty member and to be named the Palmer endowed professor. Dr. Henry Palmer was one of my professors at UConn— so it had another level of meaning to me. Dr. Palmer was always encouraging students to find new ways that pharmacists could work closer with patients and other health care professionals. Also, he was very interested in expanding pharmacist services. Overall, it’s been a great opportunity to come back and conduct research that can facilitate new opportunities for pharmacists.
(Dr. Steckowych) What I was most excited about with coming back is applying what I’ve learned in my postgraduate training to health care transformation here in Connecticut. I’m very excited to be back at UConn and be doing things that I love doing.
Q. The Palmer Fund is still actively accepting donations. What would you say to potential donors as to why they should give?
A. (Dr. Smith) Sometimes when you’re on the leading edge of doing practice-based research, it’s still too new for many organizations to fund. So, the Palmer Fund allows us to be more forward-thinking when we don’t have other sources of funding. The Palmer Fellowship is 100 percent funded through the Palmer Fund, so we rely heavily on the funds that are available to us from donors.
(Dr. Steckowych) Without donor support, this postgraduate fellowship training experience would not be possible. I’m very grateful for the continued support of this fund, otherwise myself and future fellows wouldn’t have this opportunity to learn more about practice transformation.
3 min read
Dr. Tom Winters ’80 MD and Dr. Rebecca Moroose ’80 MD are doctors by day, Fire Frogs by night.
Rebecca and Tom are co-owners of the Florida Fire Frogs, a Class-A-Advanced affiliate of Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves. They’ve owned the team for 12 years when the Fire Frogs were known as the Brevard County Manatees, a Milwaukee Brewers affiliate. The UConn alums have also owned World League of American Football and arena football teams in the past, but baseball is their favorite sport.
“I’m a big baseball fan,” Tom explained. “When I was a kid, my father and I were Cincinnati Reds fans. We used to sit out in the driveway of our home in Norwich, Connecticut, and listen to the Reds game, because we couldn’t get it on the radio in the house.”
Rebecca admits she became a sports fan through marriage, but she also appreciates the ballpark experience.
“I was athletic, but I wasn’t a big sports fan,” she said. “I enjoy it because it’s a good time to get together with friends and family.”
The couple has seen many future baseball stars come through their stadium in Kissimmee, Florida, including Milwaukee Brewers All-Star outfielder Ryan Braun, Kansas City Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar, and even former Boston Red Sox first baseman Kevin Millar. But beyond the hot dogs, peanuts, and the crack of the bat, the couple’s favorite part of owning a team is the community camaraderie.
“What I really enjoy are the nights at the ballpark when we get to pay tribute to the armed services and first responders, and host cancer awareness nights,” Rebecca said. “Those nights mean a lot to me, because it’s the spirit of the whole game and minor league baseball to keep it in your community.”
In 1986, shortly after finishing their medical residencies, Tom and Rebecca moved to Central Florida. The couple met in their first year at UConn’s School of Medicine.
“I loved my first years in medical school,” Tom said. “I’m a nut for saying that, but it was like a small high school with 80 medical students and 40 dental students. We had a homeroom and lockers, and we used to go out and play flag football or basketball in the city of Farmington. It was a good time for us. There was no competition at that time–we all knew that we would get residencies afterwards, so everybody helped each other out every day.”
Both say their successful medical careers are due to their UConn education. It comes as no surprise that Tom the sports fan owns a sports medicine practice.
“I couldn’t hit a curveball; I didn’t have a big enough arm to play quarterback,” Tom explained. “When I went into medicine, and I started in orthopedics, sports medicine was a natural choice.”
Rebecca runs the cancer research and genetics program at the University of Florida Health Cancer Center at Orlando Health, where patients work with genetic counselors to assess whether they have a hereditary predisposition to certain cancers. She also teaches at the University of Central Florida, where she was a founding faculty member of their College of Medicine. The two work across the street from each other, keeping their work in the community.
It was this community that rallied around Tom and Rebecca after their son Nate, a high school pitcher, lost his left leg after a boating accident in 2010. As detailed on ESPN’s E:60 television program, many athletes and friends came to Nate’s side: Ryan Braun, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke, who once pitched in the same league as Nate, and current Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers. At the end of a long recovery, Nate returned to the mound with a prosthetic leg and pitched again for Winter Park High School.
“The outpouring from the community was unbelievable,” Tom said. “That night while Nate was in surgery for the first time, more than 150 people came to the hospital and sat with us. Everyone was so supportive when he went back to school. Then he decided to run for class president and won in a landslide. I could go on and on, but his friends and the community turned this into something we will never forget–for how nice people really are!”
As the summer days begin in earnest, Tom and Rebecca will enjoy the warm Florida nights at their local ballpark among friends and family, rooting for the home team. And they’ll always have a special place in their heart for where their journey together began: UConn.
“Last year, Rebecca and I went back for our 35th reunion, and it was neat to go back,” Tom said. “It was good to see some former classmates. You went into a field together and grew up together. It’s nice to see what your classmates are doing with their lives. The best thing about UConn is that you really felt like you were working together for a common cause.”
3 min read
One of the driving forces behind the new UConn Women and Philanthropy initiative is co-chair Melinda (Tishler) Brown ’77 (BUS), ’85 MBA.
Brown, a straight-talking, no-nonsense executive at Coach Inc., set fundraising goals and helped shape the group into a social network for like-minded women in 2016, its inaugural year.
The fledgling campaign just passed the one-year mark with great success. It met and surpassed its initial membership goal of 100 alums and supporters around the country to donate $500 each to establish a permanent scholarship. In fact, it lined up 104 donors and raised $137,030, including a matching gift from Brown.
As a result, the group will be able to award scholarships to 10 UConn freshman women this fall and establish an endowment.
Brown, a member of the UConn Foundation’s Board of Directors, is pleased with what has been accomplished to date, but is focused on how to convert the first year’s success to an expanding perpetuity that will support even more UConn women during the entirety of their undergraduate education.
If we women don’t take care of our own, who will?
– Melinda Brown
Year Two is focused on doubling membership, maintaining the active engagement of the Year One members, and growing the base of women committed to giving year after year. Brown hopes to see the number of members grow each year, pointing out that UConn has 50 years of female alums from which to draw. She feels an emotional commitment to the group’s mission and says it has been gratifying to see others react the same way.
“If we women don’t take care of our own, who will?” Brown said. “That’s what this is all about. This is women taking care of women.”
Eventually, the group hopes to broaden its scope beyond fundraising to also mentor and advocate for UConn women, from supporting undergraduates and endowing female faculty positions to recommending female graduation speakers.
The group regularly holds social events, such as UConn Women basketball pre-game receptions and cocktail parties, so members can not only expand their personal networks, but encourage like-minded women to invest in the future of UConn and its women.
“It’s provided a new venue for women to engage. It easily generates an emotional commitment that has an immediate and long-lasting impact,” Brown said
Marilda Gándara ’78 JD, the group’s other co-chair, said Brown is well-suited to steering the group forward.
“She’s dynamic, experienced, clear-thinking, and an excellent communicator. These are qualities we need to create a strategy that can generate a sustainable impact,” Gándara said. “She is focused on balancing the short term with a long-term investment that ultimately can deliver beyond fundraising.”
Brown was raised in Norwalk, the daughter of a local garment manufacturer. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom who worked briefly for an accountant and encouraged her daughter to follow a career path in accounting.
Brown graduated early from Norwalk High School and enrolled at UConn for the spring semester, simply due to expediency. She had thought she would ultimately transfer to another university, but in fact never did.
“I loved UConn,” she said. “Campus life was varied and easily tailored to what captivated you that week. Because it is such a large campus, even after four years, there were always new people to meet and engage with. I loved my whole experience.”
She began her career in public accounting, eventually landing at the Financial Accounting Standards Board. While working, she earned her MBA evenings at the UConn Stamford branch and spent nearly 30 years at PepsiCo, where she held various leadership roles, retiring as senior vice president of global shared services and productivity. In 2012, she joined Coach Inc., serving as senior vice president and corporate controller.
While she didn’t envision herself becoming successful top-level executive growing up, she is clearly aware that her career has been a critical enabler to her personal growth.
“Anybody should want to be in my shoes. And I really do mean that,” joked Brown, who is known for her collection of fabulous footwear.
Brown, has two adult children and a granddaughter. She splits her time between homes in Stamford, Conn. during the week and Madison, Conn. on the weekends. When she’s not working, she loves to be at the beach with friends and family.
3 min read
Hollywood parodies of a typical American vacation invoke imagery of a testy ride in a wood-paneled station wagon to sandy beaches, log cabins, or theme parks.
In the real world, vacation travel has rapidly evolved: Many modern travelers are eager consumers of adventure and enlightenment that take them to exotic, less familiar destinations.
In some cases, the adventure focuses on an experience that’s exclusive to locations. These travelers are looking for an underwater cave to explore, an ashram for spiritual nourishment, or rainforests full of exotic species of plants and animals.
Similar to the adventure traveler, the birder targets destinations that are home to winged species they haven’t seen and documented on, what birders call, their formal “life list.” The foothills of the Himalayas in India are known as a birder’s dream, with more than 1,300 species in one of the world’s most breathtaking natural settings.
Morgan Tingley, UConn associate professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, is leading a UConn Alumni Relations tour titled, “India—Birding the Foothills of the Himalayas,” scheduled for May 7-19, 2018.
Many rewards await birders, adventure travelers, and nature enthusiasts on this trip, including the sizzling colors of Mrs. Gould’s Sunbird, the majesty of Pallas’s Fish-Eagle, and the large and vocal Great Slaty Woodpecker.
When travelers aren’t focused on the sheer delight of spotting a new avian species, they can soak in panoramic views of the Himalayas and the natural beauty of mountain forests and wetlands. Toward the end of the journey, a morning tiger safari safely takes you to the natural home of one of the earth’s largest felines.
This trip offers the camaraderie of traveling with fellow members of UConn Nation. Plus, it offers the enrichments of tour leader, Prof. Tingley who received the Young Professional Award by the Cooper Ornithological Society in 2012 and, in 2014, a “Wings Across America” award from the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service.
All of Tingley’s knowledge and expertise is accessible throughout the trip, fielding questions and verifying species along the way. “One of the important things I can do is talk about bird biology and their behavior,” said Tingley. Given his background, Tingley can discuss regional and environmental issues. “I can add a broader educational environment and connect their lives to what they’re experiencing on the trip.”
Tingley is also accompanied by a local, Indian bird guide with intimate knowledge of the birds and the land, offering further insights and observations.
“Some travelers will view this tour as an opportunity to experience the sheer beauty of nature in this part of the world,” said Tingley. “Others will relish both the aesthetics and the chance to understand what bird populations can tell us about anthropogenic change.”
Deb Crary, Director of Alumni Events, organizes the Alumni Travel program at UConn, and said, “It might be hard to imagine experiencing this natural grandeur narrated by a renowned, academic expert. But this trip to the foothills of the Himalayas is a real opportunity for birders, adventurers, and anyone who would welcome the chance to step into the pages of National Geographic magazine.”
For more information or to register for this trip, visit our UConn Alumni Relations website or call (877) 907-5360.
< 1 min read
Dear Friends,
You may think summers are quiet here on campus, but there’s so much going on behind the scenes!
There’s a new roof going up on Gampel Pavilion. We’ve broken ground on the new student recreation center. And, we’re nearing the completion of our new Technology Park.
It’s all part of our master plan as we continue to expand and grow. All the work done now is a bridge to the incredible changes you’ll see when you come to campus for Huskies Forever Weekend. We can’t wait to see you Oct. 20-22.
There’s going to be something for everyone, so be sure to check out the schedule of events.
Also, don’t forget about our “Welcome to the Neighborhood” series in September. Around the country, we’ll be hosting events as we welcome new graduates and friends to connect with us. You can find the event closest to you here.
Every summer’s end brings with it the promise of another exciting year at UConn. I invite you to be a part of it.
Mo
Mo Cotton Kelly, Vice President for Alumni Relations