Alumni Notes

  1. Jo Lee Dibert-Fitko

    who is vice president, and her husband, Gary Fitko (president), are now franchise owners of Budget Blinds of Grand Blanc. Their territory includes Fenton, Grand Blancand Holly as well as service to the Greater Genesee County area(MI). Budget Blinds is the fourth largest retailer of window coverings in the nation. The parent company, Budget Blinds, Inc., is located in Orange, California.(www.budgetblinds.com) Jo Lee is also the owner of Dibert-Fitko Diversions(www.dibertdiversions.com) showcasing her work as an award winning author, poet, cartoonist and public speaker.

  2. Mark J. Schervish

    has become the new head of the Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Statistics. Schervish, who has been at the Pittsburgh school since 1979, earned a doctoral degree in statistics from the University of Illinois after receiving his master’s in applied mathematics from Michigan and his bachelor’s in mathematics from Michigan State University. He is the author of Theory of Statistics and the co-author of Rethinking the Foundations of Statistics and Probability and Statistics. His research focuses on foundations of inference, spatial statistics and applications of statistics to the environment, engineering and finance. Schervish’s research has included collaborations with roboticists on developing methods for robots to detect landmines and with civil engineers in determining the distribution and effects of contaminants in drinking water. “I have always been proud to be part of this department, and I look forward to contributing at a new level to one of the premier statistics departments in the world,” Schervish said.

  3. Anand Reddi

    has been awarded a Fulbright grant to South Africa in the field of biology, by the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Mr. Reddi's research will focus on HIV/TB co-infection.

  4. Albert T. Marshall

    retired from General Electric in 2001. Over his career, he held senior management and leadership positions primarily in the development and implementation of IT systems and strategies. Since then, he has written and published two novels, "Thread of Decency" (2003) and "Paperless" (2004) under the pen name of A. Townsend Marshall. Both mystery novels are set in industry IT/IS and portray the somtime tragic struggles between ethics and greed. He and his wife, Marina, are enjoying their retirement in northern Michigan.

  5. Jennifer Lerner

    an assistant professor of social and decision sciences and psychology, has received Carnegie Mellon University’s Estella Loomis McCandless professorship. The professorship is given every three years to a junior faculty member who has shown "great promise" in her or his field, the school said. Lerner is the head of the Emotion and Decision Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. Drawing primarily on psychology as well as economics and neuroscience, the lab examines the influence of emotion on human thought and action. Lerner’s recent work revolves around two domains: judgments of risk and choices in economic transactions. Lerner is one of several members of the university’s Department of Social and Decision Sciences who are experts in how people evaluate and respond to risk. Lerner recently published a study that found that seemingly incidental emotions can influence the prices at which individuals buy and sell goods. Lerner’s research revealed that people who are sad are willing to accept less money to sell something than they would pay for the same object. Lerner majored in psychology in the Honors College.

  6. Reginald James Humphrey

    a New York based actor and freelance writer, is the Manhattan Editor/Guide for About.com, a site solely devoted to New York City. Reginald provides all the content found at the site, Manhattan.About.com, including the popular daily weblog, original articles, how-to's, relevant NYC links, and other resources for answering just about any question about New York City.

  7. George A. Lehner

    an experienced trial lawyer and mediator, has rejoined Pepper Hamilton LLP as a partner in the Washington, DC, office. Lehner served as deputy assistant legal adviser for international claims and investment disputes at the US Department of State from July 2002 through mid-June 2004. He earned the State Department's Superior Honor Award for his work on the oral proceedings at the International Court of Justice in the Oil Platforms Case.
    Lehner rejoined Pepper's Health Effects Litigation Practice Group. He practices primarily in the area of civil litigation and arbitration, concentrating in product liability, business tort, trade secret and employment litigation. He has had substantial first-chair responsibility for a variety of complex civil and mass tort litigation matters. He originally joined Pepper in 1989, and was a partner with the firm for 13 years. At the time of his departure, he was a member of the firm's Executive Committee and the partner in charge of its Washington office.

  8. John Wingard

    who heads a Honolulu-based graphic design firm, has been presented with seven Awards of Excellence in David Carter’s LOGO 2004 competition. The awards recognize "outstanding world-class logo and identity design." With over 20 local, national and international awards, John Wingard Design provides marketing, advertising, web design and graphics-based communication to a diverse clientele throughout Hawaii and the mainland. Visit www.johnwingarddesign.com to learn more.

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  9. Boris Kozolchyk

    has been selected to receive the U.S.-Latin American Friendship Award, sponsored by Hispanic Magazine and Continental Airlines. The award will be presented in San Francisco on August 26. Kozolchyk has worked through the years to reconcile legal differences between countries that can impede cross-border trade and commerce. His book on Commercial Letters of Credit in the Americas received the Best Book Award from both the Inter-American Bar Association and the Spanish government. Early in his career, he directed a U.S. Agency for International Development law reform project in Costa Rica and wrote a highly respected text that continues to be used there. Through the National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade, which he founded in 1992, he has worked toward facilitating trade and investment in the Western Hemisphere through the harmonization of laws and practices.