The following Class Notes were received from December 2007 through March 2008.

1949
Willard Widerberg, M.S.Ed. ’52, is a former principal and teacher in DeKalb, Illinois. He was honored at the unveiling of the Illinois Teacher of the Year Hall of Fame on September 10, 2007, at Eastern Illinois University. He was Illinois’ first Teacher of the Year in 1954 and first National Teacher of the Year for the state. He and his wife, Dorothy, now reside in Lady Lake, Florida.

1968
Robert Berg, Ed.D., University of North Texas Professor Emeritus and visiting professor of counseling, Southern Methodist University, recently was the featured speaker of the 25th Anniversary Harold Murphy Day Counseling Conference at Texas A&M University-Commerce. His topic was “Leading Counseling Groups that Work.”

Mary Kay, M.S.Ed. ’89, wrote the book, Using Humor to Maximize Learning; Exploring Links between Positive Emotions and Learning. It was published in January by Rowman and Littlefield Publications in January.

1970
Sally Edwards-Moir married Arnold Schroeder on February 28, 2008.

1971
David Spangler, M.S.Ed. ’73, is the author of Mathematics Explorations: Detective-Style Activities for the Real World, published by Good Year Books. He is editorial director for Stet Graphics in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

Ron Stadelman recently was appointed director of pre-license education for Coldwell Banker Primus North, LLC. He has full responsibility for the company’s pre-license school in its Illinois offices.

1972
B. Schoonmaker-Alfred, M.A., M.F.A. ’74, has a new cookbook called Pickles to Relish. She is known as “Jamlady” and has a website, Jamlady.com.

Stephen J. Goehl has earned membership in the Million Dollar Round Table’s prestigious Top of the Table. The Million Dollar Round Table is the premier association of financial professionals and the Top of the Table is attained only by those who have demonstrated exceptional professional knowledge, client service, and ethical conduct.

Denise L. Rode, M.S.Ed., ’76, Ed.D. ’90, received the 2007 award for Outstanding Contributions to the Orientation Profession given by the National Orientation Directors Association. Rode serves as the director of orientation and first year-experience at NIU.

1973
Dominic Nessi recently retired after a 32-year career in the federal government, having served the past eight years as the chief information office (CIO) of the U.S. National Park Service. In September, he began his “second career” when he was named the deputy executive director/CIO of the Los Angeles World Airport system, which includes LAX, the world’s fifth busiest airport, and three other major southern California airports.

Rich Roberts, M.S.Ed. ’74, was voted MSL Football Coach of the Year for the past season. He will also be retiring from High School District 214, Buffalo Grove High School this spring after teaching for 34 years.

1976
Jeff Forsythe is the president of Baan Solutions, LLC in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

1978
John Barton of Libertyville, Illinois, is vice president of business development for the Johnsson Group, a finance and business consulting firm in Chicago, Illinois. He works closely with executives in medium and large companies to improve on financial processes and bottom line profit. He is married to Pam and has two children, Troy and Jeffrey.

Kelly Ann Compton, M.S.Ed. ’86, published her book, Discombobulated, with www.Trafford.com.
Maribeth Jozaitis Anderson is now an independent consultant.

Greg Vassmer was the vice president of engineering at Haldex Hydraulics in Rockford, Illinois for the past four years. Vassmer is currently the general manager of Haldex Hydraulics (Qingzhou) China. He and his wife, Carla, live in Qingdao, China.

1979
Lisa A. Hanssen, Esq. has joined Tasty Baking Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as vice president and assistant general counsel. Previously, she was assistant vice president and assistant general counsel of PMA Capital Corporation in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. She received her J.D. from Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. She lives in Southampton, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Tore, son, Alex, and daughter, Elisse. She invites alumni who crave Philadelphia’s favorite snack cakes to visit tastykake.com.

Kim Swanson received the Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association. Swanson is the director of finance development at Elgin, Illinois-based Young Rembrandts, the company that teaches the power of drawing to children.

Pamela Woeckel went back to graduate school at age 49 to pursue her passion for teaching after a successful 10-year career in sales with Unisys Corporation and subsequently raising her family full time. She will teach sixth grade social studies at Woodlawn Middle School, in Long Grove, Illinois, this fall.

1980
Ruth A. Binger has been elected to the executive committee of law firm Danna McKitrick for a three-year term. Binger reprises a role to which she was first elected in 1996. Her re-election to the executive committee reflects Binger’s influential leadership within Danna McKitrick.

Stephen P. Sweigart, M.M. ’81, has established a music business which includes Shawnee Percussion Studio, Stainless Steel Band steel drum band (stainlesssteelband.com). Visit devilskitchenband.com to e-mail him and click the Wolfgang’s vault link to hear an hour-and-a-half live concert from 1970.

1981
Elaine Palmer, M.S.Ed. ’90, has been a counselor with a TRIO Program at Highland Community College in Freeport, Illinois, for 14 years. The highlight of her education at NIU was the semester she spent in Avignon, France, through NIU’s Study Abroad Program. Thank you, NIU, for such a fantastic experience!

Ernest Starks has published his book Freebooters and Smugglers with the University of Arkansas Press. The book examines the tactics and strategies that the adherents of the foreign slave trade used to challenge the law. It reassesses the role that Americans played in the continuation of foreign slave transshipments into the country right up to the Civil War, shedding light on an important topic that has been largely overlooked in the historiography of slave trade.

1983
Karen A. Barth has joined the pharmaceutical advertising agency, Abelson Taylor, based in Chicago as a senior production artist. In February, she celebrated 20 years as a volunteer interpreter for the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, Illinois.

Richard Bolesta is the vice president of development at C.A. (formerly Computer Associates) in Lisle, Illinois.

Karrie Brigson has been employed at Cardinal Health in McGraw Park, Illinois, for 22 years and is currently a project manager. She has been inducted into the Wall of Fame for volleyball at Grayslake High School and at the College of Lake County. She has been married for 24 years to Karl and has two children: Nicole, 21, and Chris, 18.

Carol Lill Goodman is the manager at Network Software L-3 Communications in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Martha O’Grady, M.A., owns Panta Rhei Media, Inc., a multimedia and video production company that has been providing business, technology, and health care clients with award-winning programs since 1983. Panta Rhei Media, Inc. was recently honored with gold and silver awards from the International Davey Awards 2007 competition, which recognizes excellence in a variety of media.

Steven Provenzano is the author of six career books, including Top Secret Executive Resumes, and currently is president of his own firm, ECS: Executive Career Services & DTP, Inc. in Streamwood, Illinois. He has appeared on CNBC, CNN/fn, ABC/NBC in Chicago, and on numerous radio programs endorsing his website, www.Execareers.net.

1987
Anna Gifford has been working at Allstate Insurance for 18 years. She is a project manager in Northbrook, Illinois.

1988
Lieutenant Michael Kerley is the Navy’s Officer Recruiter of the Year (Reserve Component), among the 13 best out of more than 5,000 in Navy recruiting nationwide.

Zennie W. Lynch, Jr. was named associate managing director at the PrivateBank-Georgia, a wholly owned subsidiary of PrivateBancorp, Inc.

Roy Witherow, M.P.A. ’91, has served as city manager of Lyons, Illinois, since 2006. Before his appointment, he served as deputy county administrator for McHenry County, Illinois, for 11 years. He is also finishing his term as senior warden of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, Illinois. In addition, he was elected for a third term as president of the Rogers Park Community Council, a 55-year-old non-profit social service agency, which provides youth services, crime victim advocacy, affordable housing assistance, and senior citizen support to residents on Chicago’s far north side. He and his life partner will celebrate their 20th anniversary in June.

1990
Daneen Schroder has been promoted to senior director of member relations and education services at the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.

1991
Lynette Marie Ditzler Conner and Patrick Conner, ’93, welcomed son Ian Patrick on May 9, 2006. Ian joins big sister, Cara, 6. The family resides in Rockford, Illinois.

Mary Frantz was awarded the 2007 Young Business Woman of the Year for the state of Minnesota as sponsored by the National Association of Women Business Owners. Chandru Shankar, M.S., M.B.A. ’98, was promoted to senior program manager, WW Services at Microsoft last November. In this position, he develops business applications offerings for Microsoft’s ERP/CRM line of solutions called Microsoft Dynamics.

1992
Michael R. Betar, J.D., has been appointed associate judge in the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit of Illinois Courts.

Virginia Garcia, M.S.Ed. ’96, was inducted into the Laredo Women’s Hall of Fame. She is currently the special projects director at Habitat for Humanity of Laredo in Laredo, Texas.

1993
Patrick D. Conner earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is employed at Hamilton Sundstrand in Rockford, Illinois, as a systems engineer in the Actuation Systems Enterprise. He was also awarded a Granger Power Engineering award. He resides in Rockford with his wife, Lynette Dizler Conner, ’91, and their children, Cara and Ian.

1994
’85 Don Bashaw is the new owner of Uncle Steve’s Pizza, a Naperville, Illinois, tradition since 1967.

Lisa Burke, M.S.Ed. ’88, has been awarded an Elmhurst President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. She is an assistant professor of education at Elmhurst College in Illinois.

Glenn Milligan is the senior systems analyst for Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago, Illinois. He works on the SAP systems testing team and previously worked on the SAP implementation and mainframe projects.

Karen Pavlik is an applications developer for Martin Automatic, Inc.

Scott K. Summers, J.D., chairs the board of trustees at McHenry County College in Illinois.

1986
David Brewer, M.S., is the team leader of global IT solutions for Caterpillar, Inc.

1988
Daniel Coakley was appointed audit senior supervisor of the compliance auditing firm of RJ Wolf & Co.

Julia S. Lamb, M.S., was a 2007 recipient of NIU’s Supportive Professional Staff Presidential Award for Excellence.

1989
Scott A. Gentz is the senior technical architect for AT&T in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. He is married to Shari Gentz and has two children, Kayla and Nathan.

Joan Marco Butters was one of 30 women to recently receive a Woman of Influence Award in recognition of their contributions to, and influence on, middle Tennessee businesses and the community as a whole. Joan is VP of data mining and technology for AIM Healthcare and was given the award for her innovation in improving the lives of others by helping to start a business, product, or service in the technology field.

1990
Sherry Humphries, M.S.Ed. ’94, works as a science teacher in the junior high school at the Illinois School for the Deaf. She was selected as the 2006 Presidential Awardee for Excellence in Science Teaching in Illinois.

1991
Julie Distenfield Schwartz married David Schwartz on September 1, 2005, in Las Vegas. They had a baby boy, Lucas Earl, on August 31, 2006.

Julie Gawne M.F.A. ’94, joined the faculty at Kentucky Wesleyan College in the fall of 2005 as associate professor of art/graphic design. She has had recent exhibitions of digital art in Kansas City (2005) and Grant’s Pass, Oregon (2007). She was the guest artist at the Kentucky Retreat for Women Writers in July 2007. She welcomed her fourth grandchild, Henry David Nelson, of DeKalb on April 24, 2007, whose mother, Natalie Nelson, ’89, is also an NIU alumna.

1992
Linda Abrahamson, J.D., has been promoted to associate judge of the 16th Judicial Circuit which is comprised of Kane, Kendall, and DeKalb counties in Illinois.

1993
Tom Hietter has written and produced a feature-length movie now available on DVD. Fellowship of the Dice is a mockumentary about role-playing gamers. Imagine Best in Show meets Dungeons and Dragons.

Chris Wendt has been promoted to vice president of sales for Synergy I.T. Solutions, LLC, in Phoenix, Arizona. Synergy I.T. Solutions is an information technology service provider specializing in LAN/WAN, server and desktop design and implementation. He and his wife, Susan, are the proud parents of Rachel Elizabeth and Ryan Adam, born on April 2, 2007. The twins are the first children for Chris and Susan.

1994
Audrey Gaeger and Vernon Schultz III were married on October 13, 2007, in Downers Grove, Illinois.

1995
Gina Miceli-Hoffman, M.A. ’99, has been promoted to assistant professor of art history at Moraine Valley Community College. Thanks to all of her former art history professors at NIU! Lisa Kosin team teaches as a graduate instructor for Aurora University. The workshop, “Real World Math for All Learning Styles,” is offered through SASED and DuPage Regional Office of Education TIDE course. She notes there is great satisfaction in teaching adults after teaching teenagers for 11 years. It is truly rejuvenating!

Ken Stein, M.S. ’98, married Beth Sisson on September 27, 2007, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Bart Woodstrup, B.F.A., M.M. ’99, recently received a master’s of fine arts degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. For his dedication to learning and research he was awarded the 2007 Malcolm S. Morse Graduate Research Enhancement Award. His research includes incorporating alternative energy sources, ecological data, and real-time meteorological events into interactive video and audio art installations. His art can be viewed at www.bartwoodstrup.com and www.vodstrup.com. He was married in Mumbai, India, to Jayeeta Chowdhury, M.A. ’99.

1996
Lisa Thanos Harrod and Jason Harrod, ’02, announce the birth of their second child, Connor Chase, on November 1, 2007. Connor joins his brother, Nathan, 1.

Victoria Litwin is a consultant with Interactive Business Systems, Inc.

Aaron Stroud was recently promoted to assistant clinic director at Herrick Children’s Center/New Alternatives, Inc, in El Cajon, California. He has worked for HCC for almost four years, working with abused and neglected children and their families.

1997
Dawn S. Hoglund Karlovsky, M.S. ’98, and Timothy J. Karlovsky, ’98, welcomed twin boys Jackson Timothy and Lincoln Basil on May 1, 2007.

2000
Greg Anger and Becky Campagne Anger, ’01, welcomed the birth of their first child, Nathan Anger, on September 15, 2007.

Katy Gildemeister Gawne is soloing with the Knoxville Symphony next season. She will be playing the Bach viola concerto in January 2009. The piece is a relatively new discovery. Barenreiter reconstructed it from fragments in the late 1990s.

Preston David Lewis married Kerri Ellen Lambert on July 7, 2007. They welcomed son Preston David Lewis II on February 21, 2008, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Rohit Mahajan, M.A., is democratic senator Herb Kohl’s new press secretary. He also ran Joseph Crowley’s operation for the past two years.

Raechel Mayberry-Reidy and husband, Patrick, delivered a healthy baby boy named Padraig Murphy Reidy.

Jacey A. Vaupel, M.S.Ed. ’07 married Nathan O. Swedberg, ’94, in the summer of 2007 in Naperville, Illinois. Fellow Sigma Kappa sorority sisters Amy Jo Stasak Martini, Christina Aronis, and Kelly Wood Cusack were among the bridesmaids. The couple lives in Naperville, Illinois.

2001
Jane Couture is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy of education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include musical understanding and aesthetic experiences. Prior to starting her doctorate, she was the director of bands at Princeton High School for four years and earned her master’s in music education. She was recently married and lives with her husband in Bloomington, Illinois, with their beloved pets.

Kristie Gambarota Hisey married Jackson Hisey on June 15, 2007, in Aurora, Illinois. They reside in Davie, Florida.

Roosevelt Griffin, M.A., has been a band director at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School in Harvey, Illinois, for four years. Last May, Griffin led the jazz band to earn a Division I ranking, the highest ranking a middle school can earn in Illinois.

2002
Celia Perez Guzman married Renee Guzman, ’04, on July 1, 2006, and welcomed their first child a year later. Daughter Elise Guzman was born on July 4, 2007.

Rachael McKiness Price and husband, Donald Price, welcomed their first child Donald Price IV, on September 26, 2007.

Rachael Price opened her law practice in February 2008. The Law Office of Rachael A. Price is located in Bartlett, Illinois, and focuses on family law. Visit www.rachaelpricelaw.com for more information.

David Tallacksen works at WBGO, where he is operations director. He has the pleasure of recording and broadcasting some of the best musicians around! He and his wife live in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Florim Zendeli is a programmer/analyst for Advanced Hewitt Associates in Lincolnshire, Illinois.

2003
Brenda Dewart Homola, M.S.Ed. ’07, and Janet Schultz have been working as a team since graduating from NIU. Together, they began the Little Broncos Day School at Barrington High School in January 2004. Holoma is the daycare director; Schultz is the early childhood teacher in the family and consumer science department at Barrington High School. The program allows for high school students to experience the field of early childhood and provides quality childcare for staff and community children.

Kevin Trueblood is the broadcast technologist for Illinois State University’s public radio station WGLT-FM. He is also a contract engineer for a handful of radio stations in Bloomington/Normal and across Illinois. He married Jessica Mortensen on September 15, 2007.

Brandon Tweed, M.S. ’05, is a software engineer for IBM in Durham, North Carolina. He is a developer and tester for Rational Developer for System 2 File Manager.

2004
Erin Clarke Mick and Jason Mick welcomed son, Charles Benjamin Mick, on December 21, 2007.

Rachel Louise Rodriguez married Anthony Joseph Schwab on February 2, 2008, in Springfield, Illinois.

2005
Cynthia Dettmer and Samuel Shea met at NIU in 2004 and were married in Honolulu, Hawaii, on November 4, 2007. “Go Huskies! We love and miss NIU!” Connie Cwudzinski married Joel McGrath on June 2, 2007, in Joliet, Illinois.

2006
Brooks Cann married Sarah Ruzicka, ’07, on November 24, 2007, in Oregon, Illinois. They now live in Oswego, Illinois.

This page maintained by the NIU Alumni Association and the Office of Alumni Relations. Questions or Comments, please e-mail: alums@niu.edu