Class Notes

A story about the life and career of retired Army Col. Patrick Downing ’73 was published on Veterans Day on 1819news.com. The Army sent him to UTampa to get his degree, he told the outlet. “Let me just say one of the good things about the military is if you want to further your education in the military, you can do it,” he said.

Isaac Manning ’83 was named to the 2024 South Jersey Biz list of executives of the year. Manning is the executive director of OTC Services, which provides job training and other services to adults with disabilities. He started with OTC Services in 1983.

In January, former president of the Florida Senate Tom Lee ’84 was appointed CEO of the Pepin Family Office, where he guides the philanthropic and investment efforts of Tampa Bay businessman Tom Pepin’s family.

Beth Lindsay-Wood ’84 is senior vice president and chief informatics and technology officer at Moffitt Cancer Center. She was interviewed in February by the Tampa Bay Business Journal about Moffitt’s technology strategy and goals.

Eric Bland ’85 is a South Carolina lawyer who helped expose the financial crimes of the notorious Alex Murdaugh. Bland has written a book about his own life and career, Anything But Bland, published in November.

Richard Sierra ’86 was selected for inclusion in Marquis Who’s Who, which publishes biographical data about notable leaders and achievers. Sierra has two decades in the legal field and is the CEO and founder of Florida Small Business Legal Center, formerly known as Richard Sierra & Associates, P.A.

J. Craig Delesie ’87 a workers compensation defense attorney, joined the Tampa/St. Petersburg office of HR Law, P.A., in January, according to a news release.

The Rev. Mark Blank ’00 leads Second Congregational Church in Bennington, VT. He recently spoke to the Bennington Banner for a story about his church’s role in its community.

Scott Binder MBA ’02, M.S. ’14 is the senior vice president of member experience at Suncoast Credit Union. News of his promotion was announced in January. He has worked for Suncoast for 20 years.

Col. Karen Landale ’02 is deputy director of contracting at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts. In November, she spoke at a Lexington (MA) Chamber of Commerce Women in Business event. In a post-event news release, Landale said, “The amount of progress that we’ve made in the Department of Defense when it comes to women is unbelievable. The research that I did preparing for this event reminded me of the benchmark moments that have allowed women to do the things that I do today.”

Charles Scherer ’02 married his partner, Frank, on Sept. 27 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New Orleans.

Ernie Garateix MBA ’03, CEO of Heritage Insurance, was named to Tampa Bay Business Journal’s “Power 100” list in January. The Power 100 recognizes people who significantly impact the region’s business community.

Lauren Brady ’07 received the Agent of Change Global Award at the 2024 She Inspires Awards ceremony in England, which she attended over Zoom, in November. Brady co-founded the This Is Me Foundation with her sister in 2012 to raise awareness about alopecia and has seen year-over-year growth in both the foundation’s scholarship program and its annual New Year’s Day Polar Plunge in Peekskill, NY.

Travis Kaiser ’07 and his Thanksgiving pizza were featured on WFTS-TV/ABC Action News in November. Kaiser owns Santoro’s Pizzeria in Tampa, where you could order a full Thanksgiving meal in the form of a pizza — turkey, stuffing, cranberries, mashed potatoes and gravy, all on a Santoro’s pizza crust. “The way the pizza world is going, there’s more and more of this going on. People do crazy stuff,” he told the outlet.

Ryan Plemmons ’07 is an Army explosive ordinance disposal officer and serves as an EOD Capability Developer for Army Futures Command, according to a recent story on dvidshub.net about Plemmons’ father, who was also an Army EOD expert.

Emily Rose ’07 is an associate professor of biology at Valdosta State University (GA) and has been working with UTampa Dana Professor of Biology Heather Mason on several projects. Their research helped establish the Seahorse National Park in the Bahamas in 2023; they co-authored a paper about dusky pipefish in the journal Molecular Ecology with Coley Tosto ’20 that was published in October; and they presented at the Society for the Study of Integrative and Comparative Biology in Atlanta in January with Megan (Hill) Sims ’18, Georgia Ambrose ’23, Emma Robbins ’24 and Hannah Holland ’24, and ran into fellow alum Matt Kolmann ’08.

Jamie (Stringer) Van Cuyk ’07 is the founder and owner of Growing Your Team, a consulting firm in St. Petersburg that works with small businesses on recruiting and retaining employees. The Florida Business Observer recently included her in its roundup of “executive diversions” and interviewed her about her hobby, aerial hoops, a form of dancing.

Margeaux (Sinibaldi) Imperiale ’08 was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame in October. She was a member of volleyball’s first national championship team in 2006.

Michelle Delker M.S. ’09 is founder and CEO of the William Stanley CFO group, which recently won the Tampa Bay Chamber’s 2024 Small Business of the Year award in the Start Up category. The company provides tools, insights and partnership to entrepreneurs.

Lorian E. Schweikert ’09 is an assistant professor of comparative neurophysiology in the Department of Biology and Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Phil Michaels ’10, M.S. ’15, MBA ’15 flew his team’s entry in the Red Bull Flugtag Tampa Bay event in November alongside fellow alums Joe Glackin MBA ’14 and Miguel Garcia ’10. The event took place on the Hillsborough River and challenged teams to engineer and construct their own flying machines. Their team, named “The Coconut Pirates” placed second out of 32 teams.

In November, Clara Reynolds MBA ’10, Crisis Center of Tampa Bay president and CEO, was presented with the 2024 Community Impact Award from the Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA.

Nick Troyer M.S. ’10 was named to co-head and develop a dedicated distribution group for Solomon Partners, a leading financial advisory firm with a new office in Tampa. The news was announced in January.

Addie Carothers ’11 and Shelby Turner ’19 married in September in Bethlehem, PA. Photos from the day were shared on the website for Lehigh Valley Style magazine in January.

Katie Piperata MBA ’11 is a senior living consultant for Healthcare Integrated Technologies. According to an announcement of her hiring in December, Piperata owns a company that provides leadership development training and consulting to senior living providers across the U.S.

Carli Todd ’11 joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in February as the player care coordinator.

Artist Bianca Burrows ’12 participated in a Q&A for Tampa Bay Business and Wealth magazine in January. The piece was prompted by the popularity of the customized bottles she creates using mixed-media applications. “Each bottle becomes unique and personal, through the collage technique, making them perfect for weddings, engagements and even big orders for businesses that want something cool, and custom, to reflect their brand,” she told the outlet.

Heather Nicolosi ’12, a two-time All-American for the Spartans, was inducted in the Athletics Hall of Fame in October for her outstanding cross country and track career.

Former Spartan volleyball player Danielle Selkridge ’12 was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame in October. Selkridge was the national player of the year in 2012 and a three-time All-American.

In January, Camilla Chebet Talam ’12 started a new position as macroeconomics research and policy officer at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Jason Gaines MBA ’13 was appointed in January as the CEO of MSM North America, a subsidiary of MSM Group, operated by CSG Czechoslovak, which aims to provide products and services to the U.S. armed forces. Gaines has over 20 years of experience in the munitions industry, according to a news release announcing his appointment.

Matt Sardo ’13 is the director of digital communications for ComicArtFans.com, the global hub for everything related to comic book collecting, and the showrunner for Indie Comics Creator Con, a New Haven, CT-based indie creator convention. The news was reported in November by Conventionscene.com.

Cousin Vinny’s Sandwich Co., founded by Vincent Andriotti ’14, A.J. DeSimone ’14 and Jake Schmidt ’16, M.S. ’17, opened on West Cass Street near campus in January to much fanfare and media attention. In March, Cousin Vinny’s was named to the list of “recommended” restaurants in the newest edition of the Michelin guide for Florida. According to a story in the Tampa Bay Times, the “recommended” distinction can pave the way for a coveted Michelin star later.

Julia Morrow ’14, M.S. ’16 was inducted into the UTampa Athletics Hall of Fame in October. Morrow was a two-time All-American in softball for the Spartans (2014, 2015).

Aryk Bingham ’15 is a captain in the U.S. Air Force and graduated from the U.S. Marine Corps Weapons and Tactics Instructor course at Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, AZ.

Samir Adams EMBA ’16 is managing director of Carbon Capture & Commercialization. In November, he published on thewellnews.com an opinion piece about the Supreme Court ruling allowing the EPA to move forward with its carbon emissions reduction plan.

Dan Donohue ’16 was hired by Minor League Baseball’s Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp as a strength and conditioning coach. The announcement was made in February.

J.W. Ferguson MBA ’16 is the owner and president of the first Preservan franchise in Tampa Bay. Preservan is a wood-rot repair company. The Florida Business Observer ran a story about Ferguson and Preservan in January.

Garrett Mitchell ’16, known on YouTube as Cleetus McFarland, recently was interviewed by NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Earnhardt’s podcast. Mitchell told the story of how he bought the DeSoto Racetrack in Bradenton, which is now known as the Freedom Factory.

Bright Frimpong M.S. ’17, is an assistant professor of business administration at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA. She co-authored a paper recently published in the Information Systems Journal, an international journal, according to an announcement in Lexington’s newspaper, The News-Gazette.

Heather O’Connor Musto MBA ’17 is a loan officer with Select Lending Services. South Florida Agent Magazine announced in January that she is working with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty in the Tampa Bay market.

Julia Rifino ’17 is the artistic associate for freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg. In this position, Rifino performs professionally in regional shows, manages the theater’s creative marketing and expresses her passion for visual arts as a scenic painter.

Alex Melendez ’18 was profiled in The Moorestown Sun (NJ) in December. The story focused on his career path at Dulcedo, a talent management and boutique digital marketing agency where Melendez, a licensed attorney, is a team manager and senior talent agent.

Michaela Moran ’18, an athletic trainer at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Massachusetts, helped to save a man’s life in November after he went into cardiac arrest in the stands at a football game. The Cape Cod Times interviewed Moran later that month, when she and others were reunited with the man they saved and were honored for their heroics. “It’s a moment you never want to happen, but when it does, we know we’ve prepared ourselves for situations like that,” she told the outlet.

Thomas Bacchia ’19 is the new associate director of strength and conditioning at University of Nevada Las Vegas, according to an announcement in February on unlvrebels.com

Shonnice Brown ’19 recently started a new job based in Chicago as a permit coordinator at AECOM, an infrastructure consulting firm.

Aaron Gareau ’19 graduated from the Navy’s Officer Candidate School in November. The Portsmouth Herald newspaper wrote a story ahead of his graduation. “Being an officer in the United States Navy will allow me to lead sailors around the world, and to continue to learn and grow as I further my career,” he told the outlet.