Class Notes – August 2018

Gus Alfieri ’89, Hall of Fame championship high school basketball coach and founder the All-American Basketball Camp in Syosset, that marked its 50th anniversary July 25.

Elizabeth Donaldson PhD ’97 is pleased to announce that her edited collection Literatures of Madness: Disability Studies and Mental Health is officially available in print and electronic form. The collection contains essays on canonical authors and lesser known and sometimes forgotten writers, including Sylvia Plath, Louisa May Alcott, Hannah Weiner, Mary Jane Ward, Michelle Cliff, Lee Maracle, Joanne Greenberg, Ann Bannon, Jerry Pinto, Persimmon Blackbridge, and others. The volume addresses the under-representation of madness and psychiatric disability in the field of disability studies, which traditionally focuses on physical disability, and explores the controversies and the common ground among disability studies, anti-psychiatric discourses, mad studies, graphic medicine, and health/medical humanities.

Jeffrey Denman ’10 has been named to City & State Albany 40 Under 40 list and was recognized at their 10 year reunion on August 14.

Lauren Ferrante, MD ’07 was presented with the Outstanding Recent Graduate Award during the School of Medicine’s White Coat Ceremony on August 12. Dr. Ferrante is an Assistant Professor of Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine at Yale School of Medicine.

Anton Haug ’64 retired from The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory on January 4, 2018.

Taoli Ji ’04 (Tony) and Sobonneth Ung’04 have started Vianetic, a new innovative diaper bag company focused on bringing a new line of innovative diaper bags for the modern day parent, has debuted its revolutionary product—the Vianetic 20L and 16L backpacks—at the New York Baby Show. Founded by two college sweetheart and SBU Alumni, its patent pending design—which has been fully funded on Kickstarter—takes the stress and fear out of traveling with a baby and not knowing where to change your baby. The backpack will allow new parents to easily change their baby inside cars, and on any flat surface. Find out more about the Vianetic diaper bag story https://www.thevianetic.com/

Elynda Hickson-Tinnie ’77 and Glenn Tinnie are exhibiting their photographs at the Port Jefferson Library during the months of July and August 2018. Viewers can see photographs of classic cars, landscapes, creative abstracts, sunsets and more.

Peter Kaufman PhD ’99 has co-authored a book “Teaching with Compassion: An Educator’s Oath to Teach from The Heart” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018)

Paula McWilliam ’98 has been announced as the director of nursing at Franklin Pierce.   She will resume this position after September 1.

Ramon Parsons, MD/PhD ’92 was presented with the 2018 School of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus Award and recognized for his distinguished career as a cancer researcher. He is the Director of the Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Dawn Zier ’86, CEO of Nutrisystem was recently published in the Philadelphia Business Journal titled, “Even the best leaders need advisors.” On August 1, she was a guest on CNBC Power Lunch, discussing Nutrisystem’s latest innovation.

Justine Marfa ’18 enlisted in the US Army serving Active Duty as a 35N, Signals Intelligence Analyst, examining communications/activity and relays that information by producing combat, strategic and tactical intelligence reports.  She received an award from the United States Army Maneuver Center of Excellence, Certificate of Achievement: “Commanding General Award”, “For distinguishing herself as the most outstanding Soldier of Cycle 3-18, Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Chemical Brigade.

Karleen Sarduy ’09 works for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and is pursuing her LCSW.