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“Amanda” Adiche shares her stories of the Nigeria of her childhood with the world through her talents as a novelist and writer of short stories and nonfiction.
Edmund Chibeau, professor of communication, knew he was in for something special when Nigerian-born Chimamanda “Amanda” Ngozi Adichie ‘01 enrolled in his History and Criticism of Radio and Television class in fall 2000. “Amanda showed me some of her short stories,” Chibeau says, “and I knew she had a great talent for writing.” Adichie’s storytelling was so powerful that Chibeau asked her to write some articles for the Campus Lantern and then made the articles required reading for his class. Adichie, who says she’s been writing ever since she could spell, also agreed to write poetry in Igbo, her native dialect, for Chibeau’s All Ears Radio Theater, a live radio show that grew out of his scriptwriting class. (more) |
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James Berry has recently made his latest stop in a long and successful career in law enforcement, becoming Chief of Police for the city of Paducah, KY in August 2009.
Chief Berry was recruited for his new position while he led the Manchester, CT Police Department as its chief. He had previously served as Chief of Police in Trumbull, after retiring from 25 years of service to the Hartford Police Department. During his career in Hartford, he rose to the Number 2 position in the department as assistant chief, responsible for the supervision of 500 police officers and 200 civilians.(more) |
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| Willimantic Waste Paper Co., one of Willimantic’s higher profile businesses, was started by Patrick DeVivo in the 1940s. Patrick’s son, James, joined the family business, and when he passed away, his wife, Mary Lou DeVivo ’60, took over. She now owns the business with her sons, Timothy DeVivo ’89 and Tom DeVivo. What began as a family-owned business that recycled metal, rags and paper in the Willimantic area has grown immensely over the years and is firmly rooted in the Willimantic community. (more) |
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A short walk from Eastern in a new location on Meadow Street is D & W Development and Design Center East, where Mark Dressler ’79 and his half brother, Michael Weitz ’88, have built their family- owned construction business from the ground up. They began by working for local landlords on simple home repairs and eventually decided to strike out on their own and start a business.
“Opening the business presented an enormous learning curve,” explained Dressler, who graduated with a degree in psychology and had no prior experience running a business. “If I had known then what I needed to know, I probably wouldn’t have done it.” (more)
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| Dr. Francis Y. Falck, Jr. ’75 is an ophthalmologist/cataract surgeon and director of Falck Eye Center, LLC, of Waterford and Mystic. After graduating from Eastern and working for a while, Dr. Falck began graduate school at the University of Michican, where he was enrolled in a combined M.D./Ph.D. program. At that time there was a group of eye specialists in his department working for the World Health Organization studying the prevalence of world blindness and how to prevent it. Dr. Falck was invited to get involved, and when he went into the operating room with one of the study participants he had an epiphany. “I said, ‘this is what I want to do.’” (more) |
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| Thierry Francois ’00 majored in business administration with a concentration in finance, and minored in information systems. He currently works as a senior financial analyst in the events department at Gartner, Inc. in Stamford. “My degree has opened a lot of doors, but the degree itself can only open the doors. It’s what I learned at Eastern in pursuit of the degree that got me this far,” he said. “The business program really gets you thinking. It covers the things you need to know to succeed in the corporate world: management, marketing, finance, operations, and sales. It gives you a solid foundation that allows you to go in any direction in business.” |
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Ph’D ’99, Yale University
Member of Teaching Faculty; UMASS Medical School
“At graduate school I sat next to students who had graduated from Harvard and MIT, and I found they hadn’t had as much opportunity to work with professors or in the lab as I had. That’s how good the Eastern program is.”
“Eastern has a wonderfully diverse campus. My freshman year I roomed with twins from Italy, and I later had two students from Pakistan as roommates. It was a great experience, and you learn (more) |
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| When Carla (Banelli) Goodwin ’69 of North Easton, MA, came to Eastern, she planned to pursue a career in education. Instead, she found her way to a career as a forensic psychologist with a private practice. She is also one of three commissioners who oversee the fiscal, personnel and operational matters of the Massachusetts Disabled Persons Protection Commission, an independent state agency that investigates and remediates cases of abuse committed against disabled Massachusetts citizens. (more) |
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| Andrew Gutt ’09 is an Eastern graduate establishing himself as a member of Willimantic’s business community. His dream of opening his first restaurant was realized in November 2009 in the form of Cafémantic, a local café serving coffee, espresso, tea and light fare that opened on Main Street in downtown Willimantic. While he always imagined himself opening a restaurant, the timing and location all came together during his senior year. The café’s building at 948 Main Street was undergoing a transformation. Gutt paid close attention to the renovations, unable to imagine anything but a coffee shop inside the space’s new façade. While attending Eastern, Gutt always felt that a coffee shop was something that Willimantic was lacking, so he took it upon himself to try and open one. (more) |
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When pressed, Tyler Richards Hewes ’02 admits that he didn’t have concrete plans for a career after graduating from Eastern Connecticut State University. He knew he had a desire to work in theatre, but he wasn’t quite sure how that would happen. Little did he know that he would be named the executive director of a well-respected chamber orchestra in a major city within a few years.
Hewes, a Theatre major who was senior class president at Eastern, was named executive director of the San Diego Chamber Orchestra (SDCO) in 2007, an accomplishment that is cause for celebration among his former professors. (more) |
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| Dr. Michael P. Johnson ’97 is an oral surgeon with Hamden-Shoreline Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Associates, P.C. of Hamden, Guilford, and Clinton. His occupation offers something new, interesting and rewarding every day, and Dr. Johnson enjoys the surgical and intellectual challenges he is continually faced with. Since he began, Johnson has seen drastic changes in his field with the integration of computers, the Internet and advanced electronics with patient care. What was once done through paper charts is now done electronically. “Virtually all patient orders in the hospital are done electronically, reports are submitted electronically, radiography is digital, and almost everything can be easily accessed through one of the many computer stations in the hospital.” (more) |
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| Dr. Mark Mashia ’89 is a chiropractor with Neurosurgical, Orthopedic and Spine Specialists of Waterbury. Since entering the field, Dr. Mashia has seen his profession evolve quite a bit. “In the past, a chiropractor would get out of school and open up an office and that would be the end of it. Now we’re in hospital settings, we’re in V.A. centers, and joining group practices.” In his practice Dr. Mashia works with neurosurgeons, orthopedists, and physiatrists. “The premise is to offer a ‘one-stop shop’ where if you aren’t seeing results; you can easily transition over to see somebody else who may be able to help you. If you’re not a surgical candidate then maybe you are a candidate for physical therapy or chiropractic treatment.” (more) |
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| Carol Pandiscia ’89 is senior vice president of technology, program management and portfolio planning at ESPN and oversees project management and business planning for the company’s technology division. She began working at ESPN shortly after graduating from Eastern with a major in communications and a minor in business. “I personally know at least 10 or 12 of the more than 30 Eastern alumni who work at ESPN, and I believe that the fact that there are so many of us here speaks to the quality of the collegiate experience and the overall preparation that we received as students,” she said. “I’ve found that Eastern graduates have a strong work ethic and a good balance between the real-world and the theoretical. We aren’t one-dimensional. We bring different things to the table with skills that are transferable across the organization.” |
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| Pamela Riccio ’87 is vice president of business process and technology at Gartner, Inc., a $1 billion information technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford. Riccio, who double-majored in business administration and economics, has worked at Gartner for 21 years and says the problem-solving and relationships skills she learned in her classes at Eastern helped launch her career trajectory. “I particularly appreciated my courses in labor economics and political economics, especially looking back on them now. I learned how the theories of economics are applied to things I see every day — how they impact day-to-day life in the business world,” she said, adding that the group projects and classwork provided a framework for management in a real-world setting. “Relationship management, project management, how to tackle problem-solving — that’s what I’ve built my career on.” (more) |
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| Do you know of an Eastern alum who should be listed here? Contact our office. |
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