Notes
of Interest to COE Alumni and Friends
Archived
Alumni
Notes
(April
2001-August
2003)
September
29, 2003
Sandra
O’Leary operates ‘My Baby & Me’ and
Dearborn Early Learning
Center in Dearborn.
Tom Smith is the new director of the Kennedy High School
Band in
Taylor. He has taught in
the district since 1985.
Janice Fidh, a first grade teacher at Haggerty Elementary
School in
the Van Buren district, was
recently featured in the Ann Arbor News for
her use of butterflies in
teaching science.
Jennifer
Karpushenkoff ‘93, marketing education
teacher at Waterford
Kettering High School, is
president of the Michigan Marketing Educators
Association.
Ken
Koenig ‘94 teaches American history at Dexter
High School. He is
also the assistant football
coach.
Michelle
Marie
Singer ‘95, ‘00 is a teacher
at Walled Lake High
School.
Amy
Colegrove
Barrons ‘96 is a ninth-grade language
arts teacher at
Waterford Mott High School.
Kirsten
Begres ‘96 is a fifth-grade teacher at
Creekside Intermediate
School in Dexter.
Eric
Burris ‘96 was named the recipient
of
Michigan’s
Physical Fitness
Health and Sports Award.
He is a physical education teacher at North
Creek Elementary in Chelsea.
Kimberly
Gillow ‘96, ‘98 is a kindergarten
teacher at Bates
Elementary
School in Dexter.
Barb
Monczka ‘96, ‘98, ‘01, a marketing
education teacher
at Seaholm
High School in Birmingham,
received the Jack T. Humbert New
Professional of the Year
Award.
Todd
Fry ‘97 teaches science at Mill Creek Middle
School in
Dexter.
Bradley
Paddock ‘97 is the assistant principal
at Walled Lake Middle
School.
Kristen
Quesada ‘97 heads the drama program at
Canton High School.
Kristen
Joy
Miklusak ‘97 is a teacher of the hearing
impaired for the
Macomb ISD in the Center
Program at Lakeview Public Schools in St.
Clair Shores.
Matthew
Gregory ‘98, a science teacher at Riverside
Middle School in
Fort Worth, TX, received
the Radio Shack Teacher Scholar Award, which
carries a personal prize
of $2,000 and an award of $500 for his school.
Holly
Janowicz ‘99 teaches at Manchester High
School.
Marie
Rau-Lombardo ‘99 teaches science at Chelsea
High School. She
formerly taught earth science
and physical science at Marysville High
School.
Dawn
A.
Cousino ‘00 is a fifth-grade teacher at
Manor Elementary
School in Monroe.
Sara
Ann
Dubey ‘00 teaches kindergarten at Paddock
Elementary School
in Milan.
Alissa
Jill
(Patton) Santa ‘00 is a substitute
teacher for the
Salinas/Monterey Unified
School District in Monterey, CA.
Kristen
Glatz ‘01 is pursuing her master’s
degree and has been
accepted into a writing internship
program in Los Angeles, CA.
George
Przygodski ‘01 is the executive director
of personnel and
school services for the Dexter
schools. He formerly taught and coached
for the Plymouth-Canton schools.
Terry
Bigham ‘02 is a social studies teacher at
Milan High School.
He
is also the junior varsity
baseball coach and seventh grade football
coach.
Trisha
Burt ‘02 is a part-time second-grade teacher
at Pierce Lake
Elementary School in Chelsea.
Doug
Busch ‘02 is the assistant principal at Wayne
Memorial High
School in the Wayne-Westland
district.
Amy
Marie
Proos ‘02 is a part-time kindergarten
teacher at Pierce
Lake
Elementary School in Chelsea.
Adam
Taylor ‘02 is a physical education teacher
at Pierce Lake
Elementary School. He has
worked in recent times as a physical therapy
assistant with the University
of Michigan Med Sport.
Angela
Wagner ‘02 is the freshman volleyball coach
at Monroe High
School.
- - - - - - - - - -
Marian
G.
Elliott ‘45, age 80, died recently in
Chelsea. A graduate
of both Roosevelt High School
and EMU, she taught home economics for
many years at Melvindale
High School.
Mary
Jane
Pawlak ‘68, age 58, died recently. She
was a former teacher
in the Inkster and Linwood
areas.
Erica
Knopper ‘86 died recently. She was a former
teacher at Ann
Arbor’s Northside Elementary. Knopper died ten
days after being
struck
by a car while helping to
move band equipment across the road to a
football game in Chelsea.
September
22,
2003
Donna
Hewitt ‘39 is director of the
Music Makers,
which
performs in nursing and senior
centers.
She was a teacher for many years, also working in
the EMU records
office. She retired
in 1975.
Jack
Price ‘52 was awarded the 2003 Lifetime
Achievement
Award for Distinguished Service
to
Mathematics Education by the National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics.
Priscilla
Gingrich ‘60 teaches special education
at New Canaan
High School in New Canaan, Connecticut.
Delores
Blackburn ‘63, ‘77 was inducted
into the Willow Run Alumni
Hall of Fame. She taught
at Ford Elementary
School for 30 years.
Herb
Kehrl ‘64, ‘67 has retired from
serving as a middle school
principal and is now
a real estate agent.
James
Kubaiko ‘68, ‘69, ‘82 was
appointed
to
the Michigan Department of Education’s Special
Education
Advisory Committee for a three-year term. He has
worked
as
director of special education for The Leona
Group since 1996.
Terry
Follbaum ‘68 has retired from his
position as superintendent of
the Center Line school
district, a position he held for 17 years.
Cheryl
Kreger ‘70, ‘72 is director
of special services for the
Dearborn Public Schools
and an adjunct faculty member at WSU.
Christine
Lake ‘70 teaches physical education
and
English at Western High School in Parma.
She
was named Physical Educator of the Year by MAHPERD.
Lorene
Zagata ‘70, ‘71, a special education
teacher at
Unionville-Sebewaing
High
School, was honored
by
the Michigan Farm Bureau with the K-12 Educator of
the Year
Award.
The award recognizes teachers who make special
efforts to
teach youth about agriculture.
Ronald
Butcher ‘71 was re-elected to his
fourth
consecutive term as vice president of the
New
Jersey State Board of Education. Butcher is an administrator
in the College
of Education
at Rowan University in
Glassboro, N.J.
Brother
James
Spooner ‘72, ‘77 is the president
of Holy Cross
High
School. He formerly spent 13 years
as
an administrator at St. Edward High School in Lakewood,
Ohio.
Lenore
Croudy ‘74 is secretary of the Michigan
Community
College Association. She has
been
associated with the Flint Community Schools since
1966. <
/font>
Michael
A.
Boulus ‘74, ‘75 is the executive
director
of The Presidents Council of the State Universities
of Michigan.
Flora
Maria
Ciccone
Quintanilla ‘75 is a Spanish
teacher at
Holly High School, a position she has
held for
25 years.
Bill
Richardson ‘75 has retired as principal
of the William D. Ford
Career-Technical Center
after 30 years.
Hal
Hooks ‘76 is the assistant superintendent
of the Clawson Public
Schools.
Robert
Pacioni ‘76 is assistant principal
at
the junior high school in Utica. He began in
Utica
in 1977 as a junior high school science teacher and
has held several
other positions
in the district.
William
Potvin ‘78 has retired from his position
as principal
of Anderson Elementary School
in the Clarkston
district.
Francyn
Chomic ‘83, ‘85 directed ‘The
Girls of the Garden Club’ at the
Ann Arbor Civic Theatre.
Elain
Bareieri ‘86, ‘87, ‘88 is
a
first-grade teacher for the Dexter schools. She formerly
taught
fourth and fifth grades at Ottawa
Elementary in Petoskey.
Robert
Neu ‘86 is the principal of Waterford’s
Kettering
High
School.
He was formerly principal of Lapeer East High
School.
Curtis
Olsen ‘86, ‘91 is an art instructor
at the Summerfield
Schools, Petersburg, where he has
taught for
16 years.
Alice
Brobst-Walch ‘87, formerly a fourth
grade teacher at Paddock
Elementary in Milan,
is now teaching fifth grade at Symons Elementary.
Terry
McCain ‘87 is a sixth-grade teacher
at Lighthouse Middle School
in New Baltimore.
Mark
Ball ‘88, ‘92, ‘95 is
the algebra and geometry teacher at
Manchester High School.
L.
Kay
Short ‘88, ‘89 is the principal
at
Lindbom
School in Brighton. She was formerly an instructional
facilitator
in Lenewee County’s
Hudson Area schools.
Charles
A.
White ‘88, ‘94, ‘96 is
the head football coach and a
mathematics teacher
at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor.
Kelly
Paige ‘89 is the interim principal
at
Lapeer
East High School. She was formerly principal at Lapeer’s
West High School.
Nancy
Price ‘89, ‘99, a marketing
education
teacher at North Farmington High School,
was
the recipient of the Louis R. Graziano Outstanding
Marketing Educator
Award.
Julie
Bedford ‘91 is principal at Brooks
Elementary School in the
Huron Valley School
District.
Craig
Rafail ‘91 is an elementary counselor for
the Dexter
schools.
He
formerly
worked in the Van Buren district, where
he
taught physical education and was a counselor for
10 years.
Steve
Rohloff ‘91, ‘96 is the physical
education teacher for
kindergarten through
fifth grade in Belleville.
Douglas
Babcock ‘92 is principal of Grissom Middle
School in Warren.
Bryan
Girbach ‘92 is principal of Milan Middle School.
Peter
Kudlak ‘92, ‘94, ‘99 is
principal of Bobcean Elementary School
in Flat Rock. He formerly
taught at
Erickson Elementary in Ypsilanti.
- - - - - - - - - -
Thomas Joseph Mikolajczyk ‘78, ‘85,
age 56, died
suddenly. He was a
former administrator,
at the time
of his death a teacher of French
and
English at Maltby Middle
School in
Brighton.
Larry
Pye ‘85, 86, age 52, a counselor at
Dearborn
High School, died of a massive heart
attack
while teaching part of a social studies class.
September
15,
2003
Jack
Yates ‘92, ‘99, principal
of Hawkins Elementary
School in the
Brighton district,
is featured
in the September
10 issue
of Education
Week with a photo on page 1 and a three-page story,
with
photos, on
pp. 29-31.
Yates started his career with the Brighton
schools as
a custodian
at Miller Elementary School in 1977 when
he completed
high school. A few years later,
he was taking courses
on a part-time basis
at Washtenaw Community
College. In 1988 he became head custodian at
Maltby Middle School
(where Nelson Maylone was his supervisor).
About
that time
he transferred
to EMU and
pursued and completed a program in elementary education.
During his
student teaching
semester, he performed
his custodial
duties at night (at
one school
building)
and was a student teacher during the day (at
another school building).
Yates
was one of
about 60
persons who applied for a 3rd grade teaching vacancy
at Hawkins
Elementary. He got
the job.
He recalls
his last day as a custodian, setting up chairs
for the district's
new teacher orientation. The
next day, he sat
in one of them!
In
the mid-90's,
Yates started
working on a master's in educational leadership at
EMU,
which he
completed
in 1999. The principal's job at Hawkins Elementary
opened
up in 2000, and Yates
applied for
and received that position.
- - - - - - -
Sandra
Harris ‘74, ‘80, ‘97, assistant
superintendent for
the Lincoln
schools, has been named
interim superintendent,
effective October 1. The current superintendent,
Al Widner, is running
for Congress.
Lana
Tatom received her first degree from EMU in
1994 and
she has
since completed a
master’s degree. She is the Title
I teacher at
Kettering Elementary
School in Willow
Run and was featured
in a recent
story in the Ann Arbor News.
- - - - -
Patricia
Jean Olson, age 60, taught music in the Dundee
schools for
24 years.
She and her
fiancé were victims of a homicide
in his home near
Chelsea.
September
1,
2003
Greg
Chappelle ‘76, ‘82 is a
research
scientist
and
engineer
at
TACOM-RDECM
in
Warren.
He
coached
an
8th
grade
team from Durfee School in Detroit
that
won second place in a Department of Defense Ecybermission
Science
Contest.
Each
student
received
a $3000 prize
from
the
U.S.
Army.
Chappelle is the recipient of the
NAACP
Roy Wilkins Renown Service Award for, among other
things,
his
ten
years
of
work that identified numerous schools to
be
awarded
more
than
$2.5
million of U.S. Army and other Department of Defense
science
and
engineering research
contracts.
He
has
recruited more than 25 minority scientists and engineers
into the
Federal
Civilian
Service. He was the recipient of the 1995
U.S.
Black Engineer
of the Year National Special
Recognition award.
Geraldine
Brady-Holmes ‘90, ‘99 is a counselor
at Dexter
High
School. She has earned certification as a national
certified
school counselor
through the National
Board for Certified Counselors.
Carlie
Gizicki of Taylor, a teacher in the Lincoln
Park schools, and
her sister Corrie Gizicki-Lipson of
Dearborn Heights (until
recently with Northwest
Airlines, but now planning
to return to EMU to become a
teacher) have written
a children’s book, An Angel
in the Sky,
in memory of their
grandfathers. A news
account in the Dearborn
Press and Guide credits Lou Thayer with
the inspiration for the book. Two other books
for children about
death of relatives and death of pets are planned.
Kathy
McNulty ‘02, for some years in EMU’s
Academic
Human
Resources
office, is now teaching third grade in the
Plymouth-Canton
schools.
Last
Modified on
October 6, 2003
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