Alumni Experts Return to Campus

It’s the season of giving and for ten alumni that meant a trip to campus to share their expertise with students who are following in their footsteps. Through career panels, lectures and even a Shark Tank styled competition, these alumni experts are helping to pave the way for the next generation of Seawolves.

Wolfie Tank 
Earlier this month, three alumni convened to sit on a panel as judges for Wolfie Tank, a Shark Tank styled event which gave the Stony Brook community the opportunity to make their social entrepreneurial pitch. The alumni panel was made up of: Derek Peterson ’88, CEO/Founder of Soter Technologies, Bob Williams ’83, President of IV Matters, Inc. and Dipita Chakraborty ’96, Client Partner at Fractal Analytics Inc.  
Alumnus in Residence: An Entrepreneur’s Story
In partnership with the College of Business, the Alumni Association hosted its sixth Alumnus in Residence discussion on October 11.The discussion featured entrepreneur Brian Facquet ‘95. As founder of Prohibition Distillery, Facquet shared his expertise with students who are aspiring entrepreneurs.
Provost Lecture Series:  Presentation of the Rohlf Medal
On Thursday, October 24, the Departments of Anthropology and Ecology and Evolution, celebrated Jim Rholf’s academic contribution to morphometrics and his philanthropic legacy to the Department of Anthropology. As part of the Provost’s Lecture Series, Dean C. Adams ‘99 presented on “Morphometrics, Macroevolution and An Effect Size Measure for Multivariate Data.”
Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature Distinguished Alumni Speaker Series
The Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature, together with the Stony Brook Alumni Association, welcomed two alumni back to campus for the Department’s Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series this fall: 

• Thursday, October 31 – Juan Duchesne Winter PhD ’84 presented “The Writer, the Madman and the Native: Image, Body and Territory”  Juan is author of 12 books and numerous articles related to twentieth and twenty-first century Latin American literature in its cultural and political contexts. 
• Wednesday, November 6 – Dean Allbritton PhD ’11, Associate Professor and Chair of Spanish at Colby College, present “Bad Blood: Visions of Hemophilia in the Spanish Aids Crisis.”  His work analyzes representations of illness and health in contemporary Spanish culture and media as focalizing points for larger discourse of national and societal health.  

Alumni Career Services:  “Making the Most of Your PhD” 
Alumni PhD graduates participated in a panel discussion, from various career communities and answered questions from students about job search timeliness, decision making and career diversity for PhD candidates. 
Applied Math and Statistics distinguished alumni speaker “Spotlight on AMS Career Series” 
Applied Math and Statistics graduate returns to campus to speak with current students – Friday, November 8, Renu Hooda ’05, Chief Talent Officer of Kinesso spoke with students who are interested in learning more about her career path in data analysis.  Renu, a Stony Brook 40 Under Forty Alumni Award recipient, most recently was Senior Vice President, Global Compensation and Talent Operations, IPG Media Brands.   Her career pat started in the consulting corporate world and after four years, she changed her career path to a more relaxed/flexible work environment. She emphasized “Have your work speak for you” and spoke about her view of the modern day work ladder is like a rock wall climber – sometimes you have to go sideways to move up.  In her role, she understands and values the strength of her applied math and statistics degree in the Advertising Industry, the importance of data integrity, data analysis and how data drives policy changes.