Alumni Updates
Robert Varnum ’65 (BA, Bio) – Robert went on to earn his MD degree. He then did a pulmonary fellowship and practiced hospital-based pulmonary medicine. He is now semi-retired and has ten grandchildren!
Bruce Coull ’66, ’68 (MS, Ph.D. Biology) – Bruce was a member of the faculty at the Univ. of South Carolina from 1973 to 2006, where he retired after a long and successful career, including serving as dean of the School of the Environment for ten years. He then was the director of the Center for Humans & Nature in South Carolina until 2010. From 1998 to 2006 Bruce was the leader of six trips to Chernobyl, Ukraine for faculty researchers.
Paul Shackatano ’68 (BA, Bio) – Paul practiced dentistry in Forest Hills, Queens, NY for 40 years and has been retired for four years.
Robert Hill ’75 (BA, Bio) – Robert just retired after 34 years practicing Emergency Medicine. “Thanks to Lehigh for a great education. My favorite professors were Dr. Malsberger and Dr. Krawiec.”
Jay Clymer ’78 (MS, PhD Bio) – Jay retired last year after teaching biology and environmental science for 40 years at Marywood University. Some of his students have received graduate degrees at Lehigh. At Marywood, Jay served in many capacities, including president of the faculty senate. He continues to serve as chairman of the board of the Lackawanna County Conservation District. “I still remain involved in local environmental projects and stream ecology. I enjoyed my years at Lehigh and the Wetlands Institute, where I got a fine education, and worked with great faculty.”
Carter Fields ’94 (BA, Bio) - After having spent nearly all of his post-Lehigh professional career in the laboratory as a molecular & cellular biologist, Carter hung up the lab coat for good in 2016 to explore opportunities on the commercial side of Genentech. Last year he accepted an offer to join the Medical Affairs division of Genentech. He is part of a team that helps design clinical trials for the company's oncology drugs. “I credit Lehigh's Biological Sciences department as well as the Journalism class I was required to take in the B.A. track for my success thus far. Thank you!”
Bart Liguori ‘ 97 (BS, Mol Bio) – Bart earned a PhD from Cornell in Sociology in 2011 and completed a Strategic Data Project Fellowship at Harvard University in 2013. Bart is currently working at the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, Office of Education Accountability, as the research division manager.
Oona Lihyani O’Neill ’97 (BA, Mol Bio) – is an assistant professor at Wake Forest Baptist Health, in the Department of Obstretrics & Gynecology.
Lusia Yi ’99 (BS, Mol Bio) – Lusia went on to earn an MS Microbiology, and a DO. She is board certified and a partner dermatologist at Alliance Dermatology Associates.
Natasha Schuh-Nuhfer ’02 (BS, Mol Bio) - After seven years as the Director of the Teacher Enrichment Program at the Center for Excellence in Education, Natasha joined NOVA SySTEMic, Northern Virginia Community College's STEM outreach program, as a regional STEM Education Coordinator. She leads the STEM teacher professional development for the region's eight school divisions, serves as the local school division contact for classroom support, and helps facilitate the program's outreach efforts through STEM days, robotics competitions, and summer camps.
Chris Jewell ’03 (BS, Mol Bio) – Chris was elected as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) for innovative research to understand the interactions between biomaterials and immune tissues, and for developing nanotechnologies enabling more selective immunotherapies.
Seetha Chandrasekhara ’09 (BS, BNS) - Seetha earned her MD degree from Temple University, and has completed her residency in general psychiatry. During her residency, Seetha also completed a M.A in Urban Bioethics, and was chief resident her fourth year. She then attended the Univ. of Pennsylvania and completed fellowship training in geriatric psychiatry. Seetha has joined the faculty at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University as an Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Science in the psychiatry department.
Daniel Torino ’09 (BS, Bio) – Daniel attended Ross University for MD, completed two years of General Surgery at UPENN, and is now at Geisinger Medical Center as a Orthopedic Surgery Resident.
Hillary Stires ’10 (BS, BNS) – Hillary was selected to be a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Executive Branch fellow for the 2019-2020 cohort. Her placement is at the office of science and technology policy at the White House.
Randi Ackerman ’11 (BA, BNS and Psychology) – Randi received his Master's in Healthcare Administration in 2016 and started as a Clinical Research Supervisor at Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2018.
Brandon Bensel ’13 (BS, Mol Bio) – Brandon successfully defended his dissertation research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is now a post-doc at the University of Vermont. His research focus is on understanding the role of cytoskeletal organization in regulating intracellular transport, using myosin-5-driven transport of synthetic liposomes along actin filaments in 3-dimensions as a model system.
Maxwell Fayans ’13 (BS, Bio) - After graduating, Maxwell completed his MBA in healthcare management in NY. He is now a Global Product Manager for a rapid point of care diagnostics company called Chembio Diagnostic Systems and his focus is on HIV rapid diagnostics.
Zachary Gow ’13 (BA, BNS and Physics) – Zachary received an MS in Computer Science from Georgia Tech and started a machine learning research and data science consulting company.
Erin Kennedy ’13 (BS, Mol Bio) -Erin successfully defended her PhD thesis at Brown University in 2019. Her research focused on DNA repair in the context of packaged DNA and studied how DNA glycosylases initiate base excision repair in nucleosome core particles. “I would like to thank the professors in the Biological Sciences department for helping to prepare me for success in graduate school. I would especially like to thank Dr. Lowe-Krentz for being a great advisor and for helping to lay the foundation of making me the scientist who I am today.”
Alexandra Slenker ’13 (BA, Bio) – Alexandra works in healthcare strategy on the Enterprise Strategy team of CVS Health/Aetna.
Aislinn Rowan-Nash ’14 (BS, Bio) successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation at Brown University. She is now a research scientist at Finch Therapeutics in Boston.
Roberto Solis ’15 (BA, Bio) - Graduated with an MD in May 2019 from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso. Roberto began his residency in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery - at the University of California, Davis in July.
Joanna Warren ’15 (BA, Bio & Int. Relations) – Joanna successfully defended her Ph.D. research in Immunology at the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “I have Lehigh, in particular the Department of Biological Sciences, to thank for inspiring me to pursue a life in science! Thank you!”
Marina Grossi ’17 (BS Biochem) – Marina is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Biochemistry at the University of Delaware.
Sabina Gudmundsson ’17 (BS, Bio) – Worked at the National Institutes of Health for as a postbac fellow and in the fall began her studies to earn a masters degree in genetic counseling.
Meredith Stifter ’17 (B.A., BNS) - Meredith graduated from UC Berkeley's School of Public Health in May with an MPH in Health & Social Behavior and a certificate in Multicultural Health.
Rachel Margraf ’18 (BS, Mol Bio and BS, Physics) – Rachel is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Stanford University in Applied Physics. She is studying particle accelerator physics at SLAC National Laboratory.
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