Youngstown State University’s Beeghly College of Education honors outstanding graduates at the 13^th Annual BCOE Alumni Awards Dinner 6:30 p.m. May 7 in McKay Auditorium, Beeghly Hall.

Honorees are:

Matthew Manley

Matthew Manley, Administrator
Manley is currently serving as director of Professional Development and principal at West Branch Middle School/Damascus Elementary. His career began at Ashtabula High School as a special education teacher. He was assistant principal and principal for the Canfield Local School District, and also Job Training Coordinator at the Trumbull County Career and Technical Center, where he received the Ohio Special Educator of the Year award. At Choffin Career Center he started a vocational program for formerly incarcerated students returning to the Youngstown City Schools.

Francine Packard

Francine Packard, Counselor
Packard is a clinical director at Trumbull County Children’s Services and is a guest lecturer and adjunct faculty member at YSU. She was appointed by the Governor to Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, Marriage and Family Therapist Regulatory Board, has provided crisis debriefing to Warren City Schools, and has provided site supervision for YSU counseling students at multiple agencies.

Carol Ann Zink

Carol Ann Zink, Educator
Carol (Thomas) Zink has been an educator with the Lincoln, Nebraska, Public Schools for most of her professional life. Zink’s many professional and achievement awards include 1970 Frieda Chapman Outstanding Student Teacher Award, 1987 Radio Station KFOR Teacher of the Month, 1991 Betsy Ross Outstanding Member Award, 2004 Department of the Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, 2005 Nebraska National Guard “Molly Pitcher” Award, 2005 East Lincoln Rotary Club Teacher of the Month, and 2008 Secretary of the Army Outstanding Service Award and Medal.

Dr. Kathleen Nogay

Dr. Kathleen Nogay, Lifetime Educational Service
Nogay, retired superintendent of Slippery Rock Area Schools, is a Youngstown native and graduate of Mount Union College. She also worked as assistant principal of Hubbard High School, taught biology and chemistry in Sebring schools and was principal of Hickory High School in Hermitage, Pa. She was a graduate of the first doctoral cohort at YSU.

Betty Green

Betty Greene, Diversity Award
Greene was a classroom teacher for 11 years, regional director for the Ohio State University Young Scholars Program for two years, and building administrator (principal) for 12 years in Middletown, Ohio schools. She finished her P-12 career in Youngstown City Schools, concluding her leadership responsibilities there with six years as Central Office Supervisor. As a faculty member at YSU, she serves as course instructor and student teaching supervisor. For the past five years, she has maintained her connection with Youngstown City Schools by serving as a member of the local Academic Distress Commission. During the spring semester of 2014, Mrs. Greene spearheaded the Urban Experience Program, a collaboration between YSU and the Youngstown City Schools.

Dr. Robert Beebe

Dr. Robert Beebe, Dean’s Appreciation Award
Beebe began his career as a third-grade teacher in Schenectady, N.Y. Following U.S. Army service in the Adjutant General Corps, he undertook graduate study in education and assumed administrative positions as assistant elementary principal, then acting principal, in Charles City County, Va. He next entered central office administration as director of Personnel, Affirmative Action, and Personnel Planning in Williamsburg, Virginia. Beebe holds a B.A. in Government (Political Science) from Harvard University, and he studied at Albany Law School prior to beginning his studies in education. He holds a M.Ed. in Instructional Supervision, a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Educational Administration, and an EdD in Educational Administration, all from the College of William and Mary. He entered university work as an assistant professor at the University of Mississippi, where he was one of the two initial recipients of the Burlington-Northern Foundation Faculty Achievement Award for his teaching and scholarship. He was also honored twice with the Kappa Delta Pi Teacher of the Year Award. His appointment as professor and chairperson of Educational Administration at YSU charged him with establishing and staffing a newly created department that would offer degree and licensure programs in Educational Administration, and to develop, defend, and inaugurate a doctoral program in Educational Leadership, the first doctoral program at the university. He served in this capacity for over six years, returned to full-time faculty status for five years, and then returned to the position of chairperson, which he held for five years. He has twice received YSU’s Watson Merit Award for department chairs, and has been the recipient of the Chairperson’s Leadership Award.

Dr. Connie Hathorn

Dr. Connie Hathorn, Dean’s Appreciation Award
Hathorn has been superintendent of the Youngstown City Schools since October 2010. A native of Mississippi, Hathorn earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and a master’s degree at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He became an assistant principal, and then went on to Iowa State University, where he completed a doctoral degree. He was a high school principal in Darlington, S.C., and moved to Akron in 1991, where he served in a variety of district leadership roles.

Carl F. Chuey

The herbarium at Youngstown State University, featuring a collection of more than 100,000 plant specimens, will be dedicated in memory of the late Carl F. Chuey, professor of Biology, who led the effort to grow the facility into one of the largest in the state of Ohio.

The dedication is set for 11 a.m. Thursday, May 7, in Room 4003 of Ward Beecher Hall on the YSU campus. In addition, a tree planted on campus will be dedicated in Chuey’s honor.

Chuey, who died last spring at the age of 70, provided a gift of $100,000 to establish a program endowment to fund the herbarium in perpetuity.

When Chuey arrived at YSU in 1967, the herbarium in Ward Beecher Hall had 200 specimens. Today, there are more than 100,000, making it the fourth largest of 35 herbaria in the state of Ohio. The facility houses specimens from more than 90 countries in six continents, including each of the 50 states and several Canadian provinces.

Chuey earned a bachelor’s degree from YSU in 1966, a master’s degree from Ohio University in 1969, and had completed work toward a Ph.D. at Ohio State University. In 1971, he was presented an honorary EdD by Ohio Christian College.

He was a founding member of the Campus Beautification Working Group at YSU, a committee charged with developing and implementing policies and procedures to preserve and sustain campus green spaces, especially the campus’ 2,000 trees.

In an article in the YSUpdate in 2006, Chuey said “completing the herbarium to me is important because it will mean my students and I have achieved a noteworthy goal for YSU. I guess it can be said that it will be my footnote in the history of YSU.”

Morris I. Friedman

Morris I. Friedman, founder of United Steel Service, Inc. in Brookfield, Ohio, receives Youngstown State University’s 2015 Friend of the University Award Friday, May 8, at Squaw Creek Country Club in Vienna, Ohio.

The annual Friend of the University Award recognizes the leadership and contributions to YSU and the community by a particular individual or individuals. The event enables YSU to acknowledge individuals who have made significant financial or personal commitments to YSU and the community.

Born in 1919 in Vapenik, Czechoslovakia, Friedman fled the impending Nazi occupation and came to the United States when he was 15 years old. His parents and two younger brothers would later die in Nazi concentration camps. In the United States, Friedman lived with relatives in the Bronx, worked in his uncle’s neighborhood grocery store and went to night school to learn English and to study to earn his American citizenship. He moved to Cleveland a year later, where he worked at a steel warehouse and fabricator owned by his uncles. After serving in a tank division in World War II, Friedman married Phyllis and returned to the steel business. He became president of Allied Metals in Niles, Ohio, and then, in 1968, founded United Steel Service, also known as Uniserv, in Brookfield. The company, with more than 100 employees, is one of the nation’s largest steel-slitting plants.

Friedman recently published his life story in a new hardback book titled, Morrie: Only in America. He has donated several copies to Maag Library at YSU. Friedman remains chairman of United Steel Service. His son, Steven, is chief executive officer.

Earlier this year, the Friedmans donated $2.5 million to establish The Morris and Phyllis Friedman Chair in Engineering at YSU.

Among the previous recipients of the Friends of the University Award are Warren P. Williamson III, Eleanor Beecher Flad, Helen Stambaugh, Nathaniel Jones, the Beeghly Family, John and Denise DeBartolo York, Shorty and Elba Navarro, and Dr. Dominic and Helen Bitonte.

Eric A. Spiegel

The head of one of the nation’s largest corporations and an internationally accomplished musician, composer and conductor will receive honorary degrees and speak at Youngstown State University’s spring commencements Saturday, May 16, in Beeghly Center on the YSU campus.

Randall Craig Fleischer

Commencement ceremonies for undergraduate and graduate students in the Beeghly College of Education, Williamson College of Business Administration and the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics will be at 10 a.m.

Commencement ceremonies for undergraduate and graduate students in the Bitonte College of Health and Human Services, the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and the College of Creative Arts and Communication will be at 2:30 p.m.

Eric A. Spiegel receives an honorary Doctor of Business Administration and gives the commencement address at the morning ceremony. Randall Craig Fleischer receives an honorary Doctor of Music and provides the commencement address at the afternoon event.

Spiegel, who was raised in Poland, Ohio, is president and chief executive officer of Siemens Corp., which has $22 billion in domestic sales, $6 billion in exports and approximately 60,000 employees based in the United States. The company, which provides solutions for more affordable and efficient healthcare, the growing demands of cities and the nation’s infrastructure needs, cleaner sources of energy production and industrial productivity, has more than 130 manufacturing sites across the United States and is represented in all 50 states.

In 2013, Spiegel was on campus to announce that Siemens was providing an in-kind grant for $440 million in state-of-the-art product lifecycle management software and training to YSU’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Spiegel joined Siemens in 2010 after 25 years of global consulting experience with organizations in the oil and gas, power chemicals, water, industrial and automotive fields. He previously was a Booz Allen Hamilton. An expert on the global energy industry, Spiegel co-authored the 2009 books Energy Shift: Game-changing Options for Fueling the Future, which has been translated into Arabic, Spanish, Korean and Japanese.

He holds a master of Business Administration degree from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where he was an Edward Tuck Scholar, and he received his A.B. with honors in Economics from Harvard University. He is chair of Ford’s Theatre Society Board in Washington D.C. and a member of the Board of Overseers at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. He also is vice chair of the Education and Workforce Committee at the Business Roundtable, a member of the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a member of the President’s Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Steering Committee.

Fleischer is in his seventh season as music director of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra. He also is currently music director for the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and the Anchorage Symphony.

He has appeared as a guest conductor with many orchestras across the world, including repeat engagements with the Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, the symphonies of San Francisco, Houston, Seattle, Utah and San Diego and the Chamber Orchestras of St. Paul and Philadelphia.

Fleischer is the only American conductor to ever receive Newsweek Magazine’s “Parent Choice Award” for his groundbreaking CD ROM of Peter and the Wolf.

He first came to international attention when, while serving his first of five years as assistant and then associate conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, he conducted Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with Mstislav Rostropovich as a soloist during the NSO’s 1990 tour of Japan and the Soviet Union. It was the first time Rostropovich played the cello in Russia since his forced exile in 1972. In 1992, Fleischer conducted an ensemble of more than 70 cellos, including Yo Yo Ma, and a 190-voice chorus in the Kennedy Awards tribute to Rostropovich, and in 1993 he conducted a private concert for Pope John Paul at the Vatican.

As a composer, Fleischer is a national leader in symphony rock and world music fusion. In March 2006, he premieres his original composition, Triumph, featuring traditional Navajo ceremonial songs and danced. He also received a commission to write a Native American fusion work combining indigenous music from Alaska, Hawaii and Massachusetts.

He has co-authored several instruction pieces for children in collaboration with his wife, Heidi Joyce, which were premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra.

Standing at the courtroom door in Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals building in downtown Youngstown are, from left, Appellate Judges Mary DeGenaro, Cheryl Waite and Carol Ann Robb.

When Judge Cheryl Waite started out as a young lawyer in the mid-1980s, female attorneys were accustomed to being called “honey” and “dear” in the courtroom. Women in law school weren’t really expected to finish.

“We were still unusual,” she recalled. “In court, people assumed I was a secretary, or someone’s wife. There were very few women practicing law at the time in Youngstown.”

Three decades later, so much has changed. Now Waite sits on Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals bench, one of three women on the four-judge panel – and all four are proud alumni of Youngstown State University.

Waite made history as the first woman and the youngest to take the bench in 1996, Judge Mary DeGenaro joined her there in 2001, and Judge Carol Ann Robb made history again this year when she took office in February. Judge Gene Donofrio, on the bench since 1993, serves as presiding judge.

“What’s remarkable is that, in 2015, it’s still remarkable to have three women on the bench, but it is worth celebrating because it shows how far we’ve come,” Waite said. “Maybe now we can say, we’re all just people. We’re all just professionals. We’re putting ourselves out there, not to say, ‘I’m the best woman for the job,’ but that I’m the best person for the job.”

Judges on Ohio’s Court of Appeals, just one step away from the Ohio Supreme Court, consider legal appeals from the common pleas courts, municipal courts, county courts and others. They are elected to six-year terms, and the Seventh District judges serve eight counties: Mahoning, Columbiana, Jefferson, Carroll, Belmont, Harrison, Monroe and Noble.

Landing a Dream Job

 For Judge Waite, the path to law school started in 1982 with YSU degree in English literature. “So many of the English Department faculty mentored and encouraged me,” she said. “I’m especially grateful to Dr. Barbara Brothers. She’s the one who made me wake up and ask myself: ‘What do I want to do when I grow up?’”

Waite earned her law degree at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University, and then worked for 13 years as an assistant law director for the City of Youngstown. There, she met and married her husband, Ed Romero, also an attorney and an assistant law director at the time, and gained extensive experience in civil law and appellate court work.

Waite was living in Boardman, a young mother with a 4-year-old and an infant, when the Ohio legislature added a fourth judge seat to the Seventh District Court of Appeals in 1995. “My husband told me it was my dream job and I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t try,” she said.

She spent the next year campaigning hard, attending corn roasts and tractor pulls, fairs and festivals, often with her children in tow. Waite won her first election – a tough contest against a well-established local judge – and was unopposed in three subsequent elections

But the Appeals Court in Ohio was a man’s world at first – at the time there were only six women on appeals court benches statewide. “I was one woman in a sea of men, and it was tough sledding, I’m not going to lie,” she said. “A lot of the judges were not willing to accept a relatively young woman, but from the beginning there were always some mentors who treated me with a great deal of respect.”

In just a few years, by 2000, women began making inroads, winning more judgeships, and the numbers had begun to shift. “Now, occasionally, we do have a line at the ladies room,” she quipped.

Though she hasn’t had to campaign as vigorously in her recent, unopposed races, Waite enjoys speaking and educating the public about the work the courts do. “I like to tout the court of appeals, and the trial courts too, “ she said. “In the appeals court , we get to be Monday morning quarterbacks. We have the luxury of time, to research and go through the transcripts, and I’m constantly amazed at how often the trial courts get things right.”

New Goal: Ohio’s Supreme Court

For Judge Mary DeGenaro, unseating an incumbent three-term Democratic judge seemed to be more noteworthy than becoming the second woman on the bench when she first won election to the Appeals Court in 2000. “I was the first lawyer to unseat an elected incumbent judge since 1959 and the first Republican to serve on this court since 1974,” she said. “Quite frankly, my coming on the court was more of a big deal because of my party affiliation than my gender.”

A Cuyahoga County native whose family moved to Canfield when she was in high school, DeGenaro said she initially majored in accounting when she enrolled at YSU. She graduated in 1983 with a double major in economics and combined business, and credits a YSU business law course for rekindling her interest in law school.

She completed her law degree at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and married her husband, Stephen A. DeGenaro, a home healthcare consultant and also a YSU alumnus. They eventually settled in Poland and her next 14 years working in a private law practice included handling the appellate practice for her firm – valuable experience for her future on the Appeals Court – and rare opportunities for a private practitioner to brief two cases before the Ohio Supreme Court, arguing one.

Reelected to her third, six-year term on the Appellate bench in 2012, DeGenaro has decided to pursue nomination to Ohio’s Supreme Court in 2016. “I’m in my 15^th year as an appellate judge, my reasoning and writing has matured to the point that I feel I am ready to serve on Ohio’s highest court,” she said.

She’s begun a statewide campaign for one of two Supreme Court open seats that will be vacant by 2017 and plans to visit every one of Ohio’s 88 counties. “I’ve run in eight counties in three contested elections. What’s 80 more?,” she joked. “Because of my judicial campaign experience, I’m ready for the challenge.”

It helps that DeGenaro enjoys campaigning. “I love driving around the state, meeting people. I think there’s an opportunity to educate the public on what we do, and it’s a way to be accountable to the public that elects us.”

Columbiana County Proud

Judge Carol Ann Robb’s arrival on the Appeals Court bench earlier this year was celebrated by local news media as history making, but she was more proud of what it meant to her home county. “I’m very proud of being a woman who’s serving in this capacity,” she said, “but it’s even more meaningful to me that I’m the first Columbiana County judge to serve this court since 1917.”

A lifelong resident of New Waterford, Robb worked full-time while pursuing a business degree at YSU and graduated in 1977, the first in her family to complete college. She landed a job as an office manager for a construction company and began working on an MBA at the University of Akron, but a friend persuaded her go to law school instead.

Robb switched to the UA School of Law, carpooled to evening classes with other Youngstown-area law students, completed her law degree and went to work with a private law firm in Youngstown. There, she practiced law for five years before starting her own private law practice in Columbiana County and partnered with her husband Ken, also a YSU alum, to start a multi-faceted family business, C&K Petroleum.

In 2001 she accepted a position as magistrate for the Common Pleas Court in Columbiana County, was appointed to an unexpired term as County Municipal Court Judge four years later, and then ran two successful re-election campaigns. “I’ve run both ways, opposed and unopposed,” she said, laughing. “I like unopposed better.”

As municipal court judge, one of Robb’s proudest achievements was creating a mental health court program designed to reduce recidivism that became the first program of its kind certified by the Ohio Supreme Court. She has served on an advisory committee and a Specialty Docket Commission for the high court that established standards for mental health courts statewide, and the program she founded is now being used as a model for other courts across Ohio.

When a longtime Seventh District appellate judge announced plans to retire in 2013, Robb decided to run for the position – she was unopposed as a Republican in the primary, but defeated her Democratic opponent in November. She took office in February. “I’m thrilled to serve with the other judges. They’ve all been extremely gracious,” she said. “I think we all aspire to the same thing. We just want to be recognized as individuals. I want people to say, there is an excellent attorney, an excellent judge, who just happens to be a woman.”

Student interns who have contributed to creating Columbiana County’s new GIS program are seniors, from left, Bobby Ritchey, Nathaniel Simmons and Ben Lynch.

The geography of Columbiana County seems to be ideal for Penguins – Penguin Geography majors, that is. They’re creating an essential economic development tool for the county, and gaining professional work experience in the process.

YSU alum Tad Herold, ’95 BA in Geography and City Planning, got the YSU/Columbiana partnership started when he took a new job as the county’s Director of Economic Development in fall 2013.

He soon discovered that Columbiana was one of the few counties in Ohio not equipped with a digital mapping system, known as a Geographic Information System, or GIS. The technology has many applications, but economic development officers use it to compete for state and federal funds and to attract prospective businesses. “I knew GIS had to be one of my first projects,” he said.

Herold returned to his old stomping grounds at YSU to discuss the county’s need with Dawna Cerney, associate professor and chair of YSU’s Geography Department. Together they crafted a plan to employ bright student interns, using digital mapping technology on campus, to create a limited GIS program for Columbiana.

Tad Herold

“The (Columbiana County) commissioners had faith in me,” he said. “When I explained our options – we could either partner with YSU or bring in a team of consultants and purchase additional equipment for a cost that could easily reach $100,000, it was an easy decision.”

Cerney recruited Bobby Ritchey, a senior Geography major from Columbiana, to kickoff the project. Ritchey drafted a letter to the county’s three cities, 10 villages and 18 townships, requesting the types of data needed to build a GIS model – building sites available for development, tax abatement zones, zoning districts, utilities, roads, bridges, and railroads.

Nathaniel Simmons, a senior Geography major from South Range, was the next intern to join the process, and Ben Lynch, a business economics major from Boardman, got involved through a related internship in the Columbiana County village of Leetonia. As information trickled in, the interns began “building” layers of data that could be used to create customized maps. For example, a grant application might require a map marked with zoning districts, neighborhood income levels, utilities and infrastructure, while a prospective developer might want different criteria. With a GIS, county officials can now create either option in minutes – without the technology, it would have taken days.

If Herold has his way, the county will continue to offer GIS-related internships for YSU students indefinitely. “We could be at this for years, making our GIS program rich and fully-formed,” he said, “and there’s always maintenance that has to be done.”

For now, student interns are gaining real life problem solving experience while saving the county tens of thousands of dollars in labor and equipment costs. Over time, Herold believes the digital mapping capability could literally bring millions of dollars in new business, grants and other benefits to the county.

The new system is already having an impact. When a business contacted his office recently, looking for a new plant location and comparing sites in Columbiana County and in the Carolinas, Herold was able to quickly respond to the company’s inquiries with detailed digital maps. “The deal is still a possibility,” he said. “The fact that we could get the information they wanted, and get it quickly, allowed us to carry the conversation along.”

Dawna Cerney

Cerney, the department chair, said YSU Geography majors have definitely caught on to the value of internships, and most complete at least one before graduation. In addition to Columbiana County, the department has developed relationships with several other agencies that regularly provide internship opportunities, she said, including the Eastgate Council of Governments, Mill Creek Metroparks and YSU’s Urban Planning Department.

The department does not require internships, but they are “heartily encouraged,” said Ron Shaklee, professor of Geography. “The experience is extremely valuable,” he said. “Most internships have a GIS component these days, and we suggest they try it even if they think they’re not interested in GIS work. Today, GIS experience is just expected in the field.”

Housed in the Phelps Building, YSU’s Department of Geography offers a BA in Geography, a new Bachelor of Applied Science in Spatial Information Systems, a certificate program in Geospatial Science and Technology (GSAT), and four Geography minors. The department employs seven full-time faculty members, and seven part-time.

Shaklee, also director of University Scholars and Honors, said the field of geography has changed rapidly since he joined the YSU faculty in 1987, and job prospects have also improved. “The technical side of things really started to take off in the mid-1990s, with GPS, satellites and GIS, and now it’s growing rapidly on a global and national basis,” he said.

On average, he said about half the department’s graduates find work in their field. “A few still have to leave the region, but there are more jobs available than in the past. Dominion East Ohio is almost always hiring, and some students get jobs in county auditors’ offices,” he said. “The expansion of the oil and gas industry has created more jobs too.”

The United States Department of Labor confirms Shaklee’s observations. The agency projects more than average growth in job openings for geographers, a 29 percent increase from 2012 through 2022, but calls the job market “competitive.” GIS jobs are expected to rise 32 percent in the same time period.

Cerney said entry level geography jobs are usually available to graduates with a bachelor’s degree, but many students decide to go on to earn a graduate degree or a PhD in the field.

“I think people are beginning to recognize the value of the Geography discipline, and it’s not just about the technology,” Cerney said. “It is true that GIS and geospatial technology are being used in more fields than ever – real estate, business, conservation, healthcare and beyond. But it’s also that employers appreciate geographers’ unique problem solving skills. Geography is rated as one of the most flexible disciplines because our students have highly-transferable skills.”

(Previously published in YSU Magazine, Spring 2015.)

Proud YSU alumnae Judge Mary Seminara Schostok, left, presiding judge of the Second District Appellate Court of Illinois, and Judge Laura Liu, of the First District Appellate Court of Illinois, the first Chinese-American in the state to serve on the appellate court.

Judges Mary Seminara Schostok and Laura Liu had been friends and colleagues for years, and they knew they had a lot in common. They’re both attorneys, live in the Chicago area and have risen to heights in the legal profession as District Appellate Court Judges in Illinois.

What they didn’t know until recently? They’re both Penguins.

“I was attending Judge Liu’s swearing-in ceremony, read her bio and realized the amazing coincidence – that we’re both YSU graduates,” Seminara Schostok said. “YSU certainly deserves some bragging rights, having two alumni appellate judges here in Chicagoland.”

Both women grew up in the Mahoning-Shenango Valley area and have maintained strong connections to their ethnic roots.

Liu, the daughter of retired YSU statistics and economics professor Yih-Wu Liu, was the only Chinese American in her 1984 graduating class at Fitch High School in Austintown, a Youngstown suburb. Now, as the first Chinese American to serve as a District Appellate Court Judge in the state of Illinois, she serves all of Cook County, including the state’s most populous city, Chicago.

Seminara Schostok, who grew up in the close-knit Italian family in New Castle, Pa., that founded the popular Pizza Joe’s restaurant chain, was the first in her family to go to college. As Presiding Judge of the Second District Appellate Court, she hears appeals from the northernmost 13 counties in Illinois.

“We do very similar work, we often have lunch or breakfast together,” said Schostok, describing the alumni colleagues’ relationship. “Being judges is like a fraternity. We’re a unique faction of the legal profession, and we tend to bond.”

 A Fateful Courtroom Tour

Judge Liu was born in the U.S., but her parents were recent immigrants – her mother from Vietnam, her father from China. Both college-educated, they had high academic standards for their daughter, standards that she now finds herself setting for her own school-aged daughter. “Growing up, I wanted to be a doctor, just like every Asian American student in the 1970s,” she joked, and so she enrolled in YSU’s six-year BS-MD program.

In 1987, after completing a BS in combined sciences in just three years, Liu went to Ohio State University to take some graduate classes and met friends in Columbus who worked in the legal field. “I toured a courtroom, and I was hooked,” she recalls. Soon after, she was admitted to the University of Cincinnati College of Law on a scholarshipand gained experience through summer clerkships in Cincinnati and Chicago. The latter was life changing. “I fell instantly in love with Chicago. I knew this was where I wanted to be.”

Liu spent the first 19 years of her career as a trial attorney, often defending healthcare providers in medical malpractice cases and representing clients in other healthcare transactions and litigation. She’s especially proud of a case she defended with her attorney husband, her fiancé at the time, who served lead counsel. Some of her most memorable and challenging cases were pro bono, for people who couldn’t afford a lawyer. “I think pro bono work should be mandatory for attorneys to retain licensure,” she said. “It’s a vital part of what it means to provide legal services.”

In 2010, the Illinois Supreme Court appointed Liu to fill a Circuit Court vacancy, making her the first Chinese American female judge in Illinois. The following year she decided to seek reelection, but her first political campaign came at a time of personal crisis – she was diagnosed with breast cancer. “It was a punishing schedule. I had 11 fundraisers scheduled, five in that month alone, and I needed to start treatment,” she said. “Luckily and fortunately, I have an incredibly supportive and thoughtful husband, I had an amazing campaign team and colleagues that helped me.”

Liu won a six-year term and continued on the Circuit Court bench until 2014 when the state’s high court appointed her again, this time to a vacancy on the First District Appellate Court. “This is a dream job,” she said. “It’s so satisfying because everyday I have new legal questions to research. In many ways, it inspires the same intellectual curiosity as when I was a law student.”

Now, as a cancer survivor, Liu has been active since 2012 with the Lynn Sage Cancer Research Foundation, a leading breast cancer research and education charity.

As a Chinese American, she’s involved in several Asian-American legal organizations and is working toward better language access, making the court system and court buildings more user friendly for people for whom English is not a first language. “I view being the ‘first’ Chinese-American in my position as both an honor and a responsibility,” she said. “It invites scrutiny. It requires me to focus on doing a good job.”

‘100 Percent Calabrese’

Judge Seminara Schostok grew up with many of the same old-country house rules as her colleague. One of six children, her father came to Youngstown at 16 to work in the steel mills; her mother, also Italian, was born in Hillsville, Pa. “We were 100 percent Calabrese,” she said, laughing. “My father never conformed to the American ways. We were not allowed to leave home until we got married. Dad would only permit me to go to YSU because it was within driving distance.”

She majored in business at first, then education, earning an AAB in 1979 and a BSEd in 1982. “YSU made it easy to be a commuter, “ she said. “I had a lot of friends, I had a sense of college, even though I was coming back and forth.” But working part-time at a law office revived her interest in studying law, and she moved to Columbus to attend Capital University Law School.

Seminara Schostok met her husband, Michael, in law school. He had grown up in the Chicago area and wanted to return, so they settled there after graduation and took jobs as Lake County prosecutors about an hour outside of Chicago. The husband and wife team worked together at first, then he left for private practice while she continued for a decade, successfully trying murder, rape, arson, child abuse and white collar crime cases and advancing to the position of Chief of Special Investigations.

“Trial work is the most exciting work a lawyer can do. You get a rush,” she said describing her specialties as a prosecutor of child abuse/assault and arson cases. “In those types of cases, especially, you feel like you’re doing God’s work. You’re wearing the white hat.”

In 1998, Seminara Schostok took her first seat on the bench when she was appointed a Lake County Associate Judge. Two years later the Illinois Supreme Court named her a Circuit Court Judge, she won an election to retain the position and served on the trial court bench until 2008. That year, the high court elevated her to the Appellate Court, and she ran a successful 13-county campaign to retain her seat two years later.

Seminara Schostok calls the appellate judge seat “a lonely job” because it requires many hours of study, reading court records and reviewing the law. The judges are always busy, but they hear oral arguments only a couple times a month. “It’s very academic, but after all these years I could never go back,” she said. “I truly love what I do.”

In 2011, Seminara Schostok, her husband and their three adult children received devastating news – he was diagnosed with a deadly glioblastoma brain tumor. He survived for 15 months. “Michael was one of the best trial attorneys in the state of Illinois, yet very humble and a very compassionate man,” she recalled. “Hospital visits during his illness often upset him. He would comment, ‘The poor people have it worse than me, Mary,’ because he realized that some were coping with financial hardships, in addition to their medical struggles.” Finances were not a struggle for the Schostoks.

In his memory, she created the Michael Matters Foundation to help with the financial hardships that families of brain tumor victims face. The foundation awards grants to help with incidental expenses, such as day care and parking, wheel chair ramps and bus fare. Support for the foundation has grown “exponentially,” she said. “It’s a little something that can help them worry a little less and concentrate more on getting better. I know that’s he would want us to do.”

Seminara Schostok has also found ways to reconnect to her Italian heritage in Chicagoland. “It was so hard to leave my big Italian family, so I sought out Italians,” she said. She’s the founder and first president of the Justinian Society of Lake County, a bar association for Italian attorneys.

(Originally published in YSU Magazine, Spring 2015.)

Nearly 100 Nursing department faculty and students participated in a mock disaster drill last month in Cushwa Hall to help prepare the campus in the event of a medical emergency. Pictured from the left are nursing students Brittany Emery, Thomas Merva and Jenna Tabachino, Clinical Instructor Sue Rendano, and students Taylor Greathouse and Tyler Chelsea. The drill, which focused on the distribution of antibiotics in response to a mock anthrax contamination, was held in partnership with the Mahoning County Health Department to establish YSU as a closed unit for public health assistance in case of a disaster. A closed unit means that the needed medication will be provided to YSU employees and their families instead of waiting in line at the open units run by the county. The YSU Nursing department, in collaboration with the nurses and doctor at the YSU Health Clinic, would run the YSU site, where employees could pick up their medication for themselves and any extended family members.

It’s the Little Free Library, with a distinctive Penguin flavor.

The book depository on the corner of Rayen Avenue and Phelps Street was installed earlier this spring by YSU’s Chapter 143 of Phi Kappa Phi. PKP was awarded the Little Library for a book drive/service project the organization conducted a year ago in which faculty, staff and students donated textbooks for Tammy King, associate dean, Bitonte College of Health and Human Services, to share with prisoners.

The free-standing weatherproof container is stocked with books for the community to borrow from or add to in order to encourage reading.

So, take one and drop one off today.

Late last year, YSU entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to ensure that the university’s website is fully accessible to all, including to individuals with disabilities.

Since then, the university has formed a work group, created a website, developed non-discrimination notices and is moving forward on several other fronts to ensure its website is in compliance with federal civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination based on disability. The agreement stipulates that the university must be in compliance by Dec. 30, 2015.

Ken Schindler, Chief Technology Officer and Electronic Information Technology Coordinator of this project, is heading the work group to lead the initiative. For more details, visit the Electronic Information Technology Accessibility Compliance website.

In the coming weeks, the university will be providing training for all faculty and staff who are responsible for adding content to the website and/or generating electronic information to be shared with students, employees or the general public. The training will include how to ensure that content is fully accessible to visually and hearing impaired individuals. All employees involved in any way with web content are required to attend. More information on dates, times and registration for training will be forwarded when available.

YSU is committed to making its electronic and information technologies, which includes all information provided though the university’s website, the university’s online learning or e-learning environment and its course management systems, for instance Blackboard technology, accessible to students, prospective students, employees, guests and visitors with disabilities, particularly those with visual, hearing and manual impairments or who otherwise require the use of assistive technology to access information provided through the University’s EIT.

The following faculty members have been designated with the special title of Distinguished Professor. The designation is for faculty who have received Distinguished Professor Awards in all three areas – teaching, scholarship and service:

James Andrews, Physics and Astronomy.
Raymond Beiersdorfer, Geological and Environmental Sciences.
Philip Brady, English.
Birsen Karpak, Management.
Hazel Marie, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering.
Tom Oder, Physics and Astronomy.
Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez, Philosophy and Religious Studies.
W. Gregg Sturrus, Physics and Astronomy.

Nursing students Joellin Chance, left, and Jamie Stellmar work on Windsor, a medical manikin in the new John and Dorothy Masternick Nursing Simulation Laboratory in Cushwa Hall.

“Windsor” is a computerized wonder, a medical manikin that sweats, breathes, cries and has a heart beat, and it’s part of a new hands-on nursing simulation laboratory in the Department of Nursing.

The facility in Cushwa Hall was named the John and Dorothy Masternick Nursing Simulation Laboratory at a dedication ceremony last month to honor the couple whose gift made the lab possible.

“We are so grateful to the Masternicks for making this beautiful, high-tech lab available,” President Jim Tressel said. “It will provide invaluable learning opportunities for our student nurses.”

The late John Masternick, an attorney and a 1954 graduate of the Youngstown College of Law, founded Windsor House Inc. with his wife, Dorothy, in 1959. The family-owned business now operates 11 skilled care facilities and four assisted living communities across Northeast Ohio and Northwestern Pennsylvania that employ more than 1,500 people.

“My parents met at Youngstown College in 1947, so YSU was always near and dear to their hearts,” said John J. Masternick, the couple’s son and also an attorney, who serves as president and CEO of Windsor House Inc. “Our purpose with the gift was to help grow the nursing department at YSU and to help the nursing industry as a whole in our community.”

In addition to the gift for the new lab, the Masternicks have established a scholarship endowment for YSU nursing students, and the John and Dorothy Masternick Foundation has made contributions to the university so far totaling more than $50,000.

Windsor, valued at $85,000 and named after the Masternicks’ business, is one of several computerized manikins in the lab, all with programmable vital signs to offer nursing students a lifelike patient care experience. There’s also classroom and seminar space, and medical exam tables where students can practice their patient assessment skills.

Video cameras are mounted above the simulation manikins. Nursing faculty monitor the students from an observation room, where they can remotely adjust the manikins’ symptoms and vital signs to simulate a wide range of real world critical care scenarios.

“I proposed that we create a dedicated simulation lab space because our nursing lab was bursting at the seams,” said Nancy Wagner, associate professor and department chair. “This is a really versatile space that gives our students practical experience in a realistic and safe environment.”

The following YSU employees received Distinguished Service Awards at the annual Faculty and Staff Awards Banquet:

Classified Service Awards
Darlene Aliberti, Community Counseling Clinic

Ellen Banks, Maag Library

Tiffany Buck, Janitorial Services

Cheryl Coy, Grants and Sponsored Programs

Roger DiFrangia, Delivery Services

Christine DiIanni, Center for Student Progress

Gary DiPasquale, Grounds

Mark Eisenbraun, Facilities Maintenance

Carol Franklin, Peace Officer Training Academy

Paul Gucwa, Facilities Maintenance

Rachell Joy, Media and Academic Computing

Margaret Kolar, Registration and Records

Jeannette Modarelli, Registration and Records

Linda Moore, Human Resources

Nancy O’Hara, Economics

Sandra Olmi, University Bursar

Michael Thornburg, Delivery Services

Renee Vivacqua, Media and Academic Computing

Professional/Administrative Service Awards
Susan Carfolo, Dean’s Office, Williamson College of Business Administration

Carrie Clyde, Human Resources

Amy Cossentino, University Scholars and Honors Programs

Susanne Miller, Dean’s Office, Bitonte College of Health and Human Services

Robin Sakonyi-White, Center for Student Progress

Sandra Torres, Financial Aid and Scholarships

Angie Urmson Jeffries, Graduate Studies and Research

Classified Exempt Service Awards
Gary Snyder, Parking Services

Professional/Administrative Exempt Service Awards
Joy Polkabla Byers, Andrews Student Recreation and Wellness Center

Arlene Floyd, Associate Degree and Tech Prep Programs

Anna Pascarella, Delivery Services

Gary Sexton, WYSU-FM

Barbara Brothers, center, receives the Heritage Award from President Jim Tressel and Carole Weimer, chair of the YSU Board of Trustees.

One is a former chair of the English department and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences whose presence is still felt in the hallways of DeBartolo Hall more than a decade after her retirement.

The other is a former chair of Geological and Environmental Sciences and university provost who retired from YSU just last year after ascending to the corner office of Tod Hall and the position of interim president.

Barbara Brothers and Ikram Khawaja received the prestigious Heritage Award at the Faculty and Staff Awards Banquet May 1 in Kilcawley Center. The award, started in 1981, is considered one of the highest honors for former YSU faculty and professional/administrative staff.

Brothers first came to YSU in the 1950s, earning a bachelor’s degree in English in 1958. After a master’s degree and PhD, Brothers joined the YSU faculty in 1967, ascending to full professor in 1983. She was chair of English for nearly 20 years, later serving as dean of the College of A&S.

Khawaja, a native of Pakistan, spent four decades at YSU, as a faculty member, department chair, director of faculty relations, dean, interim dean, interim provost, provost and interim president. He received the YSU Watson Merit Award for outstanding performance as a department chair on two occasions. He was not available to attend the awards event.

Tom Wakefield

The following faculty and staff received awards at the annual Student Awards Banquet:

Matt O’Mansky, associate professor, Sociology/Anthropology/Gerontology, Libra Award, Outstanding Advisor Award.

Tom Wakefield, associate professor, Mathematics and Statistics, Mentor Award, for the faculty/staff member who has contributed the most to the development of a YSU student.

Angela Messenger

Angela Messenger, coordinator, Writing Center, Student Service Award, in recognition of exceptional service to students.

Mollie Hartup

Mollie Hartup, assistant director, Office of University Events, Student Service Award, in recognition of exceptional service to students.

Joseph Mosca, dean, Bitonte College of Health & Human Services, the Edna K. McDonald Cultural Awareness Award, in recognition of contributions made to cultural diversity.

Matthew Novotny, executive director of Student Services, Gillespie-Painter Award, for outstanding achievement in support of Student Affairs.

Jack Fahey, vice president for Student Affairs, Dr. Charles McBriarty Award, to an exceptional student-oriented staff member.

Karen Becker

Karen Becker, coordinator, Reading & Study Skills, Smith-Murphy Award, to a faculty member going above and beyond the call of duty.

Amy Cossentino

Chet Cooper, professor, Biological Sciences, John J. Gocala Sr. Service Award, for going above and beyond to serve the traditions of YSU.

Amy Cossentino, assistant director, University Scholars Program, Dr. Martin T. “Marty” Manning Award, to an exceptional student mentor.

Howard Mettee

Howard D. Mettee, professor, Chemistry, has had a scholarly article accepted for publication in BioResources, a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the science of lignocellulosic materials, chemicals, and their new and improved applications. “Empirically Estimated Heats of Combustion of Oxygenated Hydrocarbon Bio-type Oils” was co-authored by Jake Miller, a undergraduate Chemical Engineering student at YSU, and Dmitry A. Ponomarev, professor of Organic Chemistry at St. Petersburg State Forest Technical Institute.

Nancy Landgraff, professor and chair, Physical Therapy, and Jim Benedict, instructor, Physical Therapy, presented at the Ohio Physical Therapy Conference in early April in Columbus. Their three-hour workshop was titled “Designing and Implementing a Community-Based Wellness Program for Persons with Movement Challenges.”

Gina Villamizar

Gina Villamizar, assistant professor of Spanish, Foreign Languages and Literatures, was in Córdoba, Argentina in April, where she made a presentation at an international conference. Her presentation was entitled “II International Conference: The Caribbean in its Literatures and Cultures.”

Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez, professor, Philosophy & Religious Studies, and director of the Dr. James Dale Ethics Center, recently presented a lecture, titled “Obligations for Global Poverty:  What Might a Christian Say?” at the First Presbyterian Church in Sharon, Pa.

Tysa Egleton

Tysa Egleton, associate registrar, has been admitted into a certification program offered by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Titled the Strategic Enrollment Management-Endorsement Program, it is the first certification program offered by AACRAO, and Egleton expects to complete the training over the next 12 to 18 months. The program is designed to promote industry competency and to reflect the shifting landscape of enrollment management.

Paul Sracic, professor and chair, Politics and International Relations, was quoted extensively in a Reuters News article discussing the recent launch of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and how a controversy over free-trade deals and their impact on workers may affect her candidacy.

Corey Andrews

Corey E. Andrews, associate professor, English, recently published his second book, titled The Genius of Scotland: The Cultural Production of Robert Burns, 1785-1834, by Brill/Rodopi Publishing. Andrews also gave a presentation on his new book for the James Hogg Society Conference at the University of Toronto.

Randy Hoover, professor emeritus and extended teaching service faculty, Teacher Education, was presented the Friend of Education award by the Northeastern Ohio Education Association at its spring assembly in Twinsburg. The award recognizes a person or organization whose leadership, actions and

Diana Palardy

support show them to be a true friend of education. Hoover was honored for his work and research on education accountability, achievement testing and teacher evaluation procedures. He has authored several chapters in books on education reform and has a website to showcase most of his research and commentary: Teacher-Advocate.com. Hoover’s work and his website were also recognized recently in a national blog by Diane Ravitch, a well-known public school advocate.

Diana Palardy, associate professor, Foreign Languages and Literatures and Women’s and Gender Studies, published an article, titled “The Evolution of Conguitos: Changing the Face of Race in Spanish Advertising,” in Transmodernity: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World.

Guang Chang

Xiangjia Min

Guang-Hwa Chang, professor of Mathematics and Statistics, Feng Yu, assistant professor of Computer Science and Information Systems, and Xiangjia Min, associate professor of Biological Sciences, and two recent master’s graduates from Mathematics and Statistics and Computer

Feng Yu

Science and Information Systems, Kofi Neizer-Ashun and John Meinken, presented a research paper titled “Prediction of Plant Protein Subcellular Locations” at the Seventh International Conference on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology in Honolulu. Their work was about improving prediction accuracies on plant protein subcellular locations. The paper was also published in the peer-reviewed Conference Proceedings.

Monday, May 11. The YSU Board of Trustees meets on the following schedule in the Board Room of Tod Hall: 5 p.m., University Affairs Committee; 5:30 p.m., special meeting of the Board of Trustees.

Tuesday, May 12, 6 p.m. YSU’s baseball team takes on Ohio State at Eastwood Field in Niles.

Saturday, May 16. YSU Spring Commencements in Beeghly Center on the YSU campus. Commencement ceremonies for undergraduate and graduate students in the Beeghly College of Education, Williamson College of Business Administration and the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics will be at 10 a.m. Commencement ceremonies for undergraduate and graduate students in the Bitonte College of Health and Human Services, the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and the College of Creative Arts and Communication will be at 2:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday, May 15 and 16, 8 p.m. Ward Beecher Planetarium presents “Skywatchers of Africa.” The planetarium also presents “Space Shapes” at 1 and 2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 16.

President Obama at the 2015 White House Science Fair, where more than 100 engineering schools, including YSU, committed to “Grand Challenge Engineers.”

Youngstown State University’s Rayen School of Engineering and Engineering Technology is among more than 120 U.S. engineering schools that have committed to educate a new generation of engineers to tackle the most pressing issues facing society in the 21^st century.

The 122 schools presented a letter of commitment to President Obama at the White House Science Fair in March pledging to each graduate a minimum of 20 students per year who have been specially prepared to lead the way in solving large-scale problems, with the goal of training more than 20,000 formally recognized “Grand Challenge Engineers” over the next decade.

Gregg Sturrus, interim dean of YSU’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, is among 122 deans who signed the letter.

Gregg Sturrus, interim dean of YSU’s STEM College, was among the signatories on the document.

“We’re poised to transform the landscape of engineering higher education,” said Tom Katsouleas, dean of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering and a co-leader of the initiative along with Yannis Yortsos, dean of the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering, and Richard Miller, president of the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.

“The tremendous response suggests we’ve tapped into something powerful—the very human element connecting engineering with students who want to make a real difference. I think we’re going to see these Grand Challenge Engineers do just that.”

The “Grand Challenges,” identified through initiatives such as the White House Strategy for American Innovation, the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges for Engineering, and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, include complex yet critical goals such as engineering better medicines, making solar energy cost-competitive with coal, securing cyberspace, and advancing personalized learning tools to deliver better education to more individuals.

More information on the initiative, including a copy of the letter of commitment, is available here.

Todd Rossi

Todd Rossi of Petersburg, Ohio, a junior Education major at Youngstown State University, has written a scholarly article that has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of the Humanities.

The article, titled “An Analysis of the Evolution of the American City and Orchestral Music Due to Technology,” was developed as part of his class on the History of American Cities taught by Fred Viehe, professor of History.

Rossi made a presentation of the paper at the 2015 Phi Theta Alpha Theta Ohio Regional Conference earlier this spring. He also presented the paper at YSU Quest in April. In addition, he plans to present the paper at the International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in June.

Once he graduates from YSU, Todd Rossi wants to go on to graduate school, where he hopes to focus his studies on the subculture of the American nerd. Why, you ask? Well, you see, Rossi’s a self-professed nerd himself. “They’re my people,” he jokes.

Cameron Dinopoulos

When Cameron Dinopoulos enrolled as a student at Youngstown State University in Fall 2013, he was already in a hurry to finish – but his plan worked even better than he expected.

Just 19 years old, Dinopoulos will graduate summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at YSU’s spring commencement on Saturday, May 16. He completed his undergraduate degree in less than two years.

“I don’t want anybody to think that I’m some amazing prodigy,” he said. “I had to work quite hard to graduate early, and I think just about anybody could do it. If you take the right amount of courses and load up on classes, it’s easy.”

Dinopoulos started by taking college classes in his junior and senior years at Poland Seminary High School under a plan, established by Ohio Senate Bill 140, that allows qualified high school students to take college-level courses, tuition free. When he started as a YSU freshman he already had more than 30 credit hours, enough to qualify as a sophomore, including classes in chemistry, physics, calculus and computer science.

He discussed his plan with his YSU advisor, Robert Kramer, associate professor, Computer Science and Information Systems. “I told him I wanted to get through in two years,” Dinopoulos explained. “I just wanted to be successful, and I thought the faster I get out of college with a great education, the faster I could get into a job.”

Kramer worked with Dinopoulos to ensure that all his course requirements were met, and he recommended the Poland student when Tom Reardon, a retired teacher who works in product development with Texas Instruments, came seeking a student to work on a development project for the company. That endorsement provided Dinopoulos with a one-year internship with Texas Instruments that has evolved into an independent contract with the global company.

After graduation, Dinopoulos will relocate to the Pittsburgh area, where he starts work June 1 as a software developer for Bechtel Plant Machinery Inc. in Monroeville, Pa., a division of Bechtel Inc., the largest construction and engineering company in the United States. Bechtel recruited him after he interviewed with its representatives at a YSU Career Fair last spring.

He plans eventually to pursue a master’s or doctorate degree, but first Dinopoulos wants to start his career in computer software development. “I definitely feel ready,” he said. “I’m excited about getting to work.”