Alumni Highlights

Carmen J. Marsit ’00, Ph.D., has been selected as associate dean for research at Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., the No. 5 school of public health in the country.

Scott Spitzer ’73 who has a solo legal practice in Washington for entrepreneurs, startups, and growth companies with a technology focus, recently appeared as a guest on “The Unwavering,” a podcast series devoted to assisting the armed services community with reintegrating into civilian life, and as part of a panel on “Angel Funding in the COVID-19 Environment” at the 2020 Wharton D.C. Innovation Summit.

Mary Chlopecki ’87 hosted the Lafayette softball team for dinner at her family’s restaurant, the Old Brogue Irish pub, in Great Falls, Va., Feb. 28 when the team was in town for some pre-season play. She is working to complete a list of softball alumnae together to build the Friends of Lafayette Softball and connect our Lafayette softball family.

Mark Byrnes ’83, chair of the history department at Wofford College, had a class from his World War II: A Global History course taped by CSPAN3’s Lectures in History and aired  Dec. 7, 2019.

John Maher ’81 got to sit in with the Lafayette Pep Band at the Lehigh men’s basketball home game on Feb. 8, 2020. He had fun pretending to be a college student again and thanks Katie Rice ’21 for putting up with a near-senior citizen in the ranks. He wonders if the other band members knew that the trumpet he played was probably older than their parents.

Arthur Lewis ’84 received the 2020 Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award from the Director’s Guild of America annual ceremony. The award is given to an associate director of stage management in recognition of service to the industry and guild.

Dieu Khuong-Huu ’56 shared a portion from his memoir, East Meets West, that tells of his fascinating journey from Vietnam to the United States and eventually to Lafayette. Though fluent in French, he had virtually no facility with English. Pressed for money after one year here, he took up residence for free in Dean Hunt’s home, waited on tables in Watson Hall to pay for meals, and worked other odd jobs on campus as well. Yet he mastered English well enough to graduate first in mechanical engineering and be inducted in Tau Beta Pi. He won a fellowship that paid for a master’s degree at MIT.

Brian Fink ’91 works for Vocera Communications and runs a communications network for the local VA hospital. He said, “I have helped the staff communicate with each other and with patients in our COVID ward without needing to meet face to face.”

Guy Gabrielson ’77 has been busy working on a boat design that he developed from a historic book.

Before the shelter-in-place orders took effect this spring, Bill Gillies ’78 “scratched off a bucket list trip” to Kathmandu, Nepal, where he traveled to the Everest Base Camp.

Beth Wynstra ’01 was named undergraduate professor of the year at Babson College. Beth is an assistant professor of English where she teaches courses in theater, literature, writing, and acting.