Class Notes have moved!
We love to share the good news of our alumni. And that’s why effective spring 2024 we are moving Class Notes to the alumni newsletter and publishing them four times a year—in January, April, July, and October. The alumni newsletter is emailed to all alumni, for whom we have a good email address. If you don’t currently receive it, just a drop us a note at alumni@worcester.edu with your updated email address.
Send your latest milestones and accomplishments for inclusion in the Class Notes to:
alumni@worcester.edu or fill out the form at alumni.worcester.edu/classnote
Please include your full name, including your name at graduation, class year, home address, email address, preferred phone number, and a photo of yourself.
Fall 2023 Class Notes by Class Year
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Class of 1943’s Florence Scarpaci celebrates 102nd Birthday
Worcester State alumna Florence “Flo” Scarpaci marked her 102nd birthday in May with a celebration that included more than 600 birthday cards, a special visit from the Worcester Fire Department and Worcester State Alumni Association, and a story in the local Spectrum News. Scarpaci graduated from Worcester State Teachers College and worked as an art teacher. She told Spectrum News the secret to living a good life is not getting married.
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Class Agent: Elaine F. (Curran) Cousineau, MEd ’60
Adele M. (Abood) Millette is excited to be continuing her career in teaching.
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Class Agents: Helen M. Fitzgerald, Joan L. (Lavin) Trainor MEd ‘62
Bernard A. Consoletti, MEd ’63, and his wife, Regina, welcomed their third great grandchild—a baby girl whose grandfather, Guy Consoletti ’86, is also a graduate of Worcester State.
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Class Agents: Mary C. O’Connell, MEd ’63; Ann M. (Holohan) O’Leary, MEd ’62; Elizabeth A. (Looney) Ouellette, MEd ’62
Ann B. (Cavanaugh) Cone reports that her oldest grandchild out of 18 grandchildren was recently married.
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Class Agents: Nancy M. (Fletcher) Bourgeois, MEd ’79; Bernardine C. (Rourke) Strom
V. Robert Pano, MEd ’65, is celebrating 55 years of marriage to his wife, Tania Samarsky Pano, and 14 years of retirement from teaching for 46 years. He reports, “My experience at Worcester State gave me the opportunity to teach at the Worcester Public Schools and other colleges and universities along with a great experience at the US Naval School of Aviation.”
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Class Agents: Dorothy J. Hargrove, MEd ‘68, Elaine G. (Sharistanian) Tateronis, MEd ‘74, EdD
Jane P. (Koski) Callanan traveled the world and worked in business and higher education. Now she is retired and living in Holden, Mass.
Gail E. (Nielsen) Reichert taught mathematics and science at three different schools and worked as a curriculum specialist. Gail has worked for a publishing company for eight years and worked part-time as a ski instructor in Colorado. Gail has raised two wonderful children.
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Class Agents: Jo-Anne L. Cronin, MEd ‘68, John F. Monfredo, MEd ‘67
Joanne M. (Dintino) Daley, MEd ’68, was appointed to the Board of Directors of Holden Memorial in Clinton, Mass., in June 2022. She is also a member of the Russian Icon Museum in Clinton.
Classmates Karen J. (Lind) McNall and Carol (Mulvihill) Rawson, MEd ’67, recently shared an adventure in Colorado Springs while attending a wedding. Karen reports, “The cog railway up Pikes Peak was opened, so off we went. Surprise, surprise, as the train inched north, the weather changed, and we were in the midst of a snowstorm! We then literally blew from the train to the summit station for iconic donuts and cocoa. Never too old to pass up an adventure!”
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Class Agents: Kathleen (Clifford) Shea MEd ‘74, Hugh Donohue
Hugh F. Donohue spent three weeks in South America. He got to spend a day with penguins in the Falkland Islands, something that has always been a bucket list item of his.
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Daniel M. Keeney is tutoring and consulting.
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Nancy I. (Lemerise) Boland taught at Uxbridge High School and Venerini Academy in Worcester. She worked at the Greendale YMCA for 33 years.
Elaine R. (Johnson) Hall is still involved in the jazz band at Worcester State. The jazz band includes present students, former students, and many other people from the community. Elaine is a retired teacher and is enjoying traveling. She also enjoys spending time with her 10 grandchildren.
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Lynne L. (Poitras) Stig works at St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store three afternoons a week and volunteers for the organization weekly.
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Class Agent: Jane Luxton-Boggs
Mary Lou (Ellsworth) Condike has been a published author since retirement. She has stories in five anthologies including two Sisters in Crime North Dallas publications. Mary Lou has an agent who is working to get her a publisher for a three-book series.
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Class Agent: Susan A. Baskin-Gronblom
Deborah A. (Mahoney) Abasciano moved to Hilton Head, SC. She has three children and eight grandchildren.
James J. O’Day is enjoying his position on the House Speaker’s leadership team, in charge of the fourth division, after 15 years representing the 14th Worcester District as a state representative in the Massachusetts Legislature. The House is divided by seating arrangements into four sections or divisions; he is the leader of the fourth division. His job is to provide information about issues and details of proposed legislation.
Denise M. Patnod, Lic., Ac., celebrates two decades of a successful healthcare private practice in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass. She put lots of emphasis on her studies as an undergraduate at Worcester State and New England School of Acupuncture, now located in Worcester.
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William J. Meduski retired to Cabot, VT, after a 34-year rewarding and exciting career with the Worcester Water Department. William and his wife maintain an extensive garden, have an English shepherd, and go skiing a lot in the winter.
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Class Agent: Kenneth J. Brissette
Karyn A. (Turbide) Finneron is a retired RN. She was a clinical risk manager for a medical malpractice insurance company and is an adjunct professor in allied health at Quinsigamond Community College. She has also self-published seven children’s books for early readers through middle school since retirement in 2013 under the name Nana’s Stories. Her most recent book is a Celtic fantasy novel for teens. Karyn volunteers in hospice at Notre Dame Health Care and at the Worcester Senior Center, administering COVID vaccines.
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Class Agents: Amy L. (Favreault) Benoit, Tina M. (Manoogian) Healey
Amy C. (Batzer) Orroth has had a great career after graduating from Worcester State. She started at Worcester City Hospital and, when it closed, went to UMass Medical Center, where she tried administration for a year. Amy loves teaching and treating patients, so for more than 25 years she has worked at Massachusetts General Hospital. She has gone on a few relief trips to Honduras and Beijing. Married with three children, Amy loves to hike, ski, mountain bike, walk with her Bernese mountain dog, and spend time with friends and family on Crane Beach.
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Class Agents: Jeffrey L. Busha, Lawrence “Larry” M. Sasso, MS ’13
Veteran employee benefits consultant James V. Huffman Jr. has joined Alliant Insurance Services as senior vice president within its employee benefits group based in Boston. Huffman has more than 25 years of experience in the field of employee benefits and will focus on designing, implementing, and managing employee benefits solutions for a diverse national client base.
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Class Agents: Paul E. Cahill, Lou E. DiMuzio, Daniel M. Harrington, Catherine R. (Foppiano) McGrath, Jeffrey T. Turgeon
Catherine R. (Foppiano) McGrath is a fifth grade English language arts teacher and became a grandmother for the first time this spring with the birth of her grandson.
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Donna M. McCarthy, MS ’92, recently retired from AbbVie after 25 years.
Lucinda M. Theroux-Jette, PhD, OT/L, LAc, CFMP, recently achieved certification in functional medicine. She is currently the only certified functional medicine provider in the Southern New Hampshire area. She specializes in preventive care, cancer prevention, early detection of disease and dysfunction, optimal aging and healthy longevity, digestive disorders, and immune dysfunction.
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Class Agents: David C. Frederici, John F. Seymour
Lisa M. (Rogers) Morley has been a computer programmer for MEDITECH since graduating from Worcester State. She is now assisting her two kids on their college choices.
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Class Agents: Pamela A. (Anderson) Walls, N. Wolf Winset
Franchesca M. Minikon-Reece is currently assigned overseas in Oman for a few years. Her eldest son recently started his undergraduate studies at Worcester State University and is enjoying his experience being in the United States, where he hasn’t lived except for two years in elementary school. Franchesca’s other two children are in middle and high school.
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Class Agents: Brandon E. Frencic, Greg V. Nikiforow
Brian T. Murphrey was recently spotlighted as artist of the month in Worcester Magazine.
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Class Agent: Shawn Gersbach
Brian Houlihan Jr. recently started a position as northeast SLED sales director at World Wide Technology.
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Class Agent: Carrie A. (Stewart) Piermarini
Amy L. (Wilfong) Peterson, chief of staff in the office of the city manager of Worcester was recently named by Worcester Magazine as one of 20 Women to Watch. Amy was promoted twice within the last year, first from communications specialist to senior project manager and then to chief of staff. She is currently serving as interim cultural development officer and was recently appointed to Worcester State University’s Board of Trustees.
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Class Agents: David D. Cairns, Michael P. McCarthy
Latasha F. Hughes was awarded one of 66 grants and fellowships from the City of Worcester and the Worcester Arts Council. Winners reflected a wide range of Worcester-based programs and organizations. Latasha received a $5,000 grant for Mr. Twister, an interactive opera performance and puppetry workshop.
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Tara B. (Gliesman) Gunduz coaches the girls varsity soccer team at Dover-Sherborn High School with her husband. This year the team went to the final four in the state tournament. Tara and her husband welcomed their baby girl in July. She took a year off from teaching to be with her daughter, and now she has started a full-time position for her husband’s company, Enjoy Life Education, an educational nonprofit with a fierce drive to positively impact the world through teen empowerment.
Musician and producer Eric P. L’Esperance was one of eight Worcester artists recently awarded a $5,000 fellowship through the Worcester Arts Council. Eric is half of the singer/songwriter duo Ash & Eric.
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Class Agent: Brittany N. Rheault
Ann E. Klump is looking forward to traveling with her family to England and Norway.
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Class Agent: Brandon Huggon
Ivonne-Marie Mendoza received her master’s in business administration with a concentration in project management from Southern New Hampshire University in 2022. She was named to ALPFA’s 2022 Latinas Rising Star list.
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Class Agents: Mary E. Laycox, Jose C. Lewis, Joseph D. Nawn, Colleen M. (McKenna) Sansoucy, Trevor J. Sansoucy
Shawn C. Driscoll is a historian, writer, graduate student, and adjunct professor in history and political science. He is the author of the 2022 book We Are but Your Children: An Oral History of the Nightclub ManRay (Quidnet Press) and co-author of The Grip: The 1918 Pandemic and a City Under Siege (Dutcher and Ellsworth) and has published work in books that cover topics ranging from World War I (They Ventured Far, Dutcher and Ellsworth) to women in Hollywood (Hollywood Heroines, ABC-CLIO). A native of the Massachusetts South Shore, Shawn currently lives in Worcester and is pursuing his PhD in global studies at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell.
Elyce Roy was named by Worcester Magazine as one of Worcester’s 2023 Women to Watch, which highlighted 20 local women who have taken on new roles in Worcester, despite continued bias and barriers faced by female leaders across the nation. Elyce graduated from the Worcester Fire Academy last June and is currently a firefighter for the Worcester Fire Department. She has also been owner of CenterMass Training Compound, home of Crossfit Centermass, on Shrewsbury Street for five years.
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Class Agent: Brittany King
Derek E. Canton was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and was recently featured in Boston Globe Magazine.
Michelle R. Henault is currently a PhD candidate in history at The State University of New York at Albany. She is working on her dissertation, which focuses on cultural and medical understandings of the reproductive body in 18th-century England.
Sean L. Martin went to work in child protective services after graduating from Worcester State then on to grad school for his MSW. He graduated from Westfield State in 2020 and was later able to get his LCSW. Currently, Sean works on a court forensic unit.
Maria R. (Evangelista) Troka traveled to Greece after graduating from Worcester State. There, she met her now husband. Maria got married in 2017 and has an almost 2-year-old girl, Eva. Maria worked as a training and development coordinator at DestinationWeddings.com. In 2019, she decided to join the family business and get her real estate sales license.
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Bret E. Laurie is a full-time editor and freelancer living in Massachusetts. In 2015, while earning his BA in English with a writing concentration from Worcester State, he began an internship at the art education publisher Davis Publications and in 2016 was hired full time. Since then, he has worked as an editorial assistant, a production editor for several textbooks, and an associate editor for an art education magazine. Bret explores his passion for the horror genre through film reviews and freelance editing projects, including six horror fiction novels for an independent author living in Scotland. Recently, Bret had flash fiction and a short story published in two anthologies from DarkLit Press, a Canada-based small press publishing company. From 2015 to 2016, he worked as the copy chief for the New Worcester Spy. In 2015, he worked in the Worcester State Writing Center as a writing consultant.
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Hannah M. (Boss) Maheno, MS, has taken on leadership opportunities in the biotech industry. As a scientist, she developed and qualified a potency assay for a gene therapy product. Hannah presented externally at the CASSS bioassay conference while at Sanofi. In 2021, she accepted a manager role at Homology Medicines, leading a team of five analysts responsible for release testing of clinical AAV material. They introduced automated pipetting systems into their lab and used ddPCR to quantify their vector genomes. She is currently responsible for a lab expansion project as they increase their capacity in 2023. Hannah also has a passion for CMC project management and has been collaborating with cross-functional teams to map out the development timelines of tech transfers, IND filing, and beyond.
Alison N. Njoroge started a new position as a medical case manager at Palmetto Community Care.
Isaac D. Ofori is currently a student at UMass Medical School.
Sarah (Connell) Sanders, MEd ’17, is the co-author of Small Teaching K-8, recently published by Jossey-Bass, which addresses teacher burnout with a series of low-effort/high-reward approaches to education. Via clear descriptions and step-by-step methods, Sanders demonstrates how to integrate simple interventions into pre-existing pedagogical techniques to dramatically improve student outcomes.
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Jonathan T. Canoy graduated from Worcester State with a bachelor’s degree in history and went on to obtain a master’s degree in education at UMass Amherst. He had the privilege of teaching in a few different settings, including the Springfield Public Schools and a collaborative in Marlborough. Currently, he teaches eighth grade civics in Westborough, and he’s passionate about making a positive impact on his students’ lives. Outside of teaching, he is eagerly preparing to become a first-time father.
Sydney R. Despres and Hunter Paupaw ’19 got married in December of 2022. They are both proud Lancers and former student-athletes.
Michelle E. Fidler recently graduated from the University of Maine with a master’s degree in speech language pathology and completed her certificate of clinical competence. She is currently working in a middle school in Providence, RI.
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Fernando A. Ponce is a Salvadoran American freelance filmmaker who has been creating community-focused short documentaries for three years, Fernando’s passion for filmmaking came from having been filmed on VHS by his dad growing up. Home videos truly preserved and captured his childhood, and he wanted in some way to do the same thing for others through filmmaking. Having a deep appreciation for preserving nostalgia, Fernando’s storytelling is told through creating visuals and portraying raw emotions.
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Olivia I. Petrucci, MOT ’21 completed the 4+1 occupational therapy program at Worcester State. Olivia works per diem at Umass Memorial and full-time at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. She works in mental health to help her patients with daily life skills and finding new activities they enjoy.
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Zachary T. D’Orsi received his MA in Spanish at Worcester State University. He earned his BA in Hispanic studies and education at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. Through connections made during his time at Worcester State, Zack has published two novel reviews in literary magazines. Zack lives in Massachusetts and teaches Spanish at a middle school.
Kevin P. Saleeba, MA, teaches middle school English/history at the St. Anna School in Leominster, Mass. When he’s not teaching, he writes for Chamber Exchange – The Newspaper, a quarterly publication by the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. He also coaches the Grafton High School swim team and published two books, with a third one on its way. He earned a master’s degree in English from Worcester State, graduating with a 4.0 GPA in 2021.
TaNajia D. Smith currently works at Putnam Science Academy. Her job consists of traveling around the country in a 15-passenger van, helping her team be exposed to big events for college coaches to recruit them. While traveling, she also teaches in the classroom.
Gladys Yeboah is continuing her education in a master’s program for nursing.
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Elizabeth Garzon has recently started a job with the Department of Children and Families.
Minh C. Luong is currently finishing his first year at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in the Doctor of Optometry Program.
Michele E. Bravo Moran was a dual degree student with Worcester State and the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. She was one of the first recipients of the Adopt a Scholar scholarship and many other merit scholarships. She was active at Worcester State and the community as a student employee, orientation leader, and a student vaccinator volunteer with VaxCorps during the pandemic. Michele is currently working as an RN at UMass Memorial in a nurse residency program.