7.26.23
Class Notes
Comings, goings, appointments, retirements, honors, accolades and other notable Wichita State University alumni news. Former Wichita State students are designated by fs. Honorary alumni are noted as hn.
MARY JOAN WAID ’61, ART-P, is a 2023 inductee into Wichita State’s College of Fine Arts Hall of Fame. After graduating from the University of Wichita (WU), she moved to New York City with her husband GUY C. WAID ’63, MUS-P, a baritone studying classical voice at WU. Her paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the United States as well as in Germany, Switzerland and Japan. She was awarded numerous art colony residencies at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and MacDowell in Peterborough, N.H. Works of hers are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Museum of Art, Wichita Art Museum and the National Academy of Design in New York City, as well as in private collections. Her work can be seen at Atrium Gallery in St. Louis, Mo. She lives and works in New York City and Vermont.
ROY J. BECKEMEYER ’69, M AERON E, ’74 PHD AERON E, is a writer, poet and photographer who retired in 1997 from Boeing and his first career as an aeronautical engineer. His ekphrastic flash science fiction piece “When Telekinesis Trumps Precognition” is one of 12 writings chosen to describe an ink drawing by donna e perkins in The Ekphrastic Review. Beckemeyer’s fifth and latest book of poetry is The Currency of His Light (Turning Plow Press, 2023). His work has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net Awards. He resides in Wichita.
MARK G. WENTLING ’70, ANTHRO, ’70 ECON, ’70 POL SCI, has had his article “Coming to Grips with Poverty in Africa” published in the May quarterly edition of the American Diplomacy online journal. Wentling is a retired foreign service professional who worked with the Peace Corps, USAID, World Vision and CARE. The 2014 recipient of the WSU Alumni Achievement Award, he is also the author of nine books, including the trilogy of novels Africa’s Embrace, Africa’s Release and Africa’s Heart. After living and working in 54 African countries, he now resides in Lubbock, Texas.
MICHAEL E. POWELL ’73, INST MUS, is a 2023 inductee into Wichita State’s College of Fine Arts Hall of Fame. The trombonist has been a member of the celebrated American Brass Quintet since 1983. He has taught classes in trombone and chamber music all over the world and performs and records regularly with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Little Orchestra Society. He appears with such diverse ensembles as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Speculum Musicae, the Zankel Band of Carnegie Hall, Music Today, Musical Elements, Peer Schickele’s New York Pick-Up Ensemble and the Tidewater Quintet. He is on the faculties of Juilliard, SUNY at Stony Brook and the Aspen Music Festival. He resides in the New York City metro area.
MARCUS C. ROWLAND ’75, ACCT, a veteran oil and gas corporate executive, director and investment manager, launched several energy-related ventures before founding his own investment firm, IOG Capital LP, in 2014. A CPA with many avocational interests, Rowland owns the land in East Texas that is the site of Wichita State’s Boxed Springs Archaeological Field School. Boxed Springs is a Native American site, part of a larger Caddoan mound complex, with evidence of early Caddo occupation (800-1200 CE). This season, the field school runs from June 5 to July 1. Rowland lives in Dallas.
CARLA Y. (SHEPARD) ECKELS ’84, SPEECH/RADIO/TV/FILM, is director of organizational culture at KMUW 89.1, a National Public Radio (NPR) member station owned by WSU. An award-winning announcer and news producer for KMUW since 1996, she produces and hosts the R&B and gospel show Soulsations. Among her many honors, she was inducted into the Kansas African American Museum’s Hall of Fame in 2020 as a “Trailblazer.” Among the national news stories she has reported on for NPR are the Hesston, Kan., shootings, BTK serial killer case, Scott Reeder trial, the Greensburg, Kan., tornado and the 1958 Dockum Drug Store sit-in in Wichita. In 2009, she penned “This Significant Day” for The Shocker magazine after attending and reporting on Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration as the 44th U.S. president. She resides in Wichita.
Meet the president of Saint Joseph’s University
CHERYL A. MCCONNELL ’84/84, a national figure in Jesuit higher education, is the 29th president — and the first woman — to lead Saint Joseph’s University (SJU) in Philadelphia. “I believe,” she says, “that higher education is more essential today than ever before. The world’s future will require individuals who are both broadly and deeply educated, ready to take on the challenges yet to arise.”
Before assuming the presidency, she served as interim president and for three years prior was provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at SJU, where she especially focused on growing the university’s portfolio of academic offerings.
A proud first-generation college graduate, she says that “as a first-generation student, Wichita State provided both the academic and financial support I needed to thrive. Because of dedicated faculty members throughout the university, I was challenged to push myself to achieve.”
DANA E. (WHITE) BOLAR ’87, COMM, a regional admissions representative at WSU, has 25 years of experience in higher edcation and non-profit management, including six at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she served as associate director for alumni and parent programs at the Miami University Alumni Association. She lives in Prairie Village, Kan.
MARK J. FISHER ’88, BIO/CHEM, has retired from a 33-year career with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and taken up a safety and health manager position with EA Engineering, Science and Technology, an employee-owned public benefit corporation providing diverse environmental services. In his new role at EA, which requires professional Industrial Hygiene certification, Fisher supports the company’s environmental clean-up business line. “My new job,” he notes, “required Industrial Hygiene certification, which I learned and maintained while at the Army Corps of Engineers, but which I attribute mostly to my WSU education. I would never have been able to pass the industrial hygiene examination without all the chemistry and biology instruction I received at Wichita State.” He lives in Omaha, Neb.
VALARIE A. FLORIO ’98, M CJ, has been a workforce development manager at Entegra Technologies Inc., Wichita, since August 2022. Before re-focusing her skills and experience in communications, fundraising and relationship-building to workforce development in the semiconductor industry, she was a grants and special projects, communications coordinator with the Sedgwick County Department of Public Services. She has also served as chief development officer for the Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland and as a development director at Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas. She lives in Wichita.
KERRY A. JONES BRANINE ’00, M CR WR, teaching professor and writing center director at WSU, is the winner of the 2021 Nilsen Prize issued by Southeast Missouri State University Press, Cape Girardeau, Mo. Her prize collection of short stories, The Last Innocent Year, will be released Sept. 22, 2023 and can be pre-ordered now at multiple online sites.
DELIA R. GARCIA ’02, MINORITY ST, who has posted 25 years of public service and non-profit leadership experience in advocating for economic security and development, is a women’s bureau administrator at the U. S. Department of Labor. In 2004, she became the first Latina to be elected to the Kansas House of Representatives, representing the 103rd district and serving from 2005 to 2011. She became Kansas’ first Latina labor secretary in 2019 when appointed to the office by Gov. Laura Kelly. Latina Leadership Lessons: Fifty Latinas Speak is Garcia’s first book project, for which she compiled lessons gleaned from three generations of Latina leaders from 24 states. The book is out now.
MOLLY P. FOX ’04, COMM, a veteran communications and marketing professional with experience in non-profit management, is in her third year as vice president for institutional advancement at Wichita’s Kansas Health Science Center–Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine. She lives in Wichita.
Julius Thomas III joins an elite group of Law & Order Shockers
Best known for his starring role in national tours of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, JULIUS THOMAS III ’05 broke new acting ground on May 18 when Law & Order’s “Open Wounds” episode aired on NBC. He played the guest role of Silas. “Got to cross another rite of passage off the list,” he says. The Wichita State performing arts graduate made his Broadway debut in The Scottsboro Boys in 2010.
With his Law & Order appearance, Thomas joins an elite group of Shocker actors who’ve also been featured in the long-running TV series: the late Shirley Knight fs ’57, Ray Wills ’82 and Blake Robbins ’88. Knight appeared in more than 50 feature films (including The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, 1960, and Sweet Bird of Youth, 1962), TV shows and Broadway and Off-Broadway productions before her death in 2020. Wills, like Thomas also did, made his reputation on Broadway before broadening his acting chops with film and TV roles, and Robbins, after years in front of the camera, stepped behind it in 2012 to write, direct, produce and act in his feature film debut The Sublime and Beautiful.
Thomas, whose Broadway credits also include Porgy and Bess and Motown the Musical, honed his talents in such WSU productions as Pippin.
SARAH JANE CRESPO ’06, COMM, is the director of community engagement at KMUW, Wichita 89.1, an NPR member station. Since 2020, she has worked as a facilitator of discussions about the lives and political views of Kansans recorded with StoryCorps’ “One Small Step.” She lives in Wichita.
ASHLEY A. (GLUSZEK) PURDUM ’06, CDS, ’08 M CDS, associate clinical professor in the WSU College of Health Professions’ department of communication sciences and disorders, serves as clinic director of the Evelyn Hendren Cassat Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic, a nonprofit clinic at Wichita State that provides speech therapy, language therapy and hearing services and testing to people of all ages who have communication difficulties. Purdum resides in Wichita.
TAUREAN J. EVERETT ’08, DANCE, is a 2023 inductee into WSU’s Fine Arts Hall of Fame. Since making his Broadway debut in 2014 in Mamma Mia!, he has added Moulin Rouge!, The Cher Show and Miss Saigon to his Broadway credits, as well as the national tour of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. He has also made multiple appearances as a runway model on Bravo’s Project Runway and is a featured performer on Peacock’s The Amber Ruffin Show. Off stage, he is involved with NYC public school theater programs that provide arts education to inner-city students. He’s also active with Wichita State’s Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Alliance (IDEA). About his Hall of Fame induction, Everett says, “It’s a lovingly shared accolade. I share the honor with my parents (VICTOR “VIC” ’79 and JUNETTA ’79 EVERETT), family, teachers, my partner and my friends. It validates all of the love and education poured into me. I’m forever grateful for this wonderful honor from Wichita State – and will always and forever be Shocker proud.” He lives in NYC.
JUSTIN W. WILSON ’12, M SP MGT, who also holds a Doctor of Law from Oklahoma City University and a Juris Doctor from Syracuse College of Law, is managing partner at Cox & Wilson PLLC in Las Vegas, Nev.
ANTONIO S. MARTINEZ ’14, CERAMICS, ceramics artist, has taught and lectured at a number of art centers and universities – including Wichita’s City Arts, Middle Georgia State University in Cochran, Ga., Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan., and the University of Kansas, from which he earned a master’s degree in 2018 – all while exhibiting his work nationally. When asked what inspires him, the Lawrence-based artist explains, “My ideas stem from my own experiences, both past and present. Growing up, I worked for my father in his metal shop where we did custom ornamental iron work. My grandfather started the family business doing machine work as a Mexican immigrant before my father took over. I was never great at metalworking, but I enjoyed working with my hands. As I discovered clay, it became a way for me to talk about materials, place and time.”
PAIGE T. OLSEN ’14, BIO SCI, who earned a master’s degree in marine sciences from the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences at Nova Southeastern University in Florida in May 2023, works as a local coordinator for the CIEE Council on International Educational Exchange in Hollywood, Fla.
FIDEL SERRANO ’15, ART GD, lives in Wichita, where he is CEO of Agave Design LLC and co-founder of Alma Negra Collective, a cultural gifts store and “tequila lifestyle” brand. In April, Alma Negra expanded to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Serrano is a former senior communications specialist and graphic designer at Wichita State.
ERINN N. PENNY ’16, CJ, ’18 M CJ, program analyst for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), has joined the ATF’s newly opened National Crime Intelligence Center of Excellence on WSU’s Innovation Campus. The new center, which is housed in the growing campus’ Partnership Building 3, is a crime-fighting lab and interagency collaboration focused on the support of Crime Gun Intelligence (CGI) at local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies throughout the United States. The center offers training programs and academies that provide the newest systems using CGI. It will also serve as a home for ATF’s CGI Governing Board. Penny, a Crime Gun Intelligence Specialist II, has also worked for the City of Wichita, at Equity Bank as a compliance analyst and as an investigative support assistant for the U.S. Secret Service. She resides in Wichita.
JOSEPH W. SHEPARD ’16, GEN ST, ’18 M PUB ADM, chief of staff and director of National Hometown Fellowship at Lead For America in Wichita, serves as co-chair of the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Wichita program.
CONNOR MCFADDEN ’17, GEO, who received a master’s degree in geology from Ohio University in 2019, has been a staff geologist with research experience in soil sciences for American Geosciences Inc., an environmental consulting firm based near Pittsburgh, Pa., for nearly two years and a Geologist II since February 2023. He is also an FAA-certified drone pilot.
EMILY A. MULLINS ’17, COMM, ’20 M COMM, director of communications at the WSU Foundation and Alumni Engagement (WSUFAE), has been recognized by the Wichita Business Journal as among the city’s Women Who Lead in Marketing. Prior to joining the WSUFAE in 2022, she was an internal communications specialist at Koch Industries. She lives in Wichita.
ZEESHAN KHAN ’18, BIO/MED E, ’20 M TECH MGT, program manager for industry defense programs at the Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization at Wichita State, obtained certification from WSU’s AI and Machine Learning Education Series in May. Khan, who also owns JAZ LLC, which offers independent consulting and business management services, resides in Wichita.
GARRETT J. BROWN ’20, SP MGT, is athletic specialist for the City of Pflugerville, Texas. Prior to being named to this position in May, he served as events specialist for the city. He has also worked as an athletic coordinator for the City of Killeen, Texas, and as a recreation coordinator in Lynn Haven, Fla. He lives in Pflugerville.
KYLE D. NORDICK ’23, M PUB ADM, is city administrator in Sedgwick, Kan., where flags and street posters saluting the city’s Hometown Heroes were displayed for Memorial Day. “It’s the small things like partnering with the local American Legion chapter to start this (Hometown Heroes) program in our city to honor our veterans that make my day,” reports Nordick, whose public administration work includes stints as a management analyst with the City of Wichita and as a city council member in Park City, Kan.
STEPHANIE WRIGHT ’23, M SP MGT, is assistant director for athletic communications at Wichita State, where she had worked as a graduate assistant for athletic communications and served as the primary contact for cross country, track and field, and men’s tennis. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism/PR from Utah State University.
Sonic statements and otherwise
WILLIAM PC SIMMONS V, a.k.a. Rev. Billy Simmons and Rev. Billy Coiffure, is a multi-talented artist and musician — and owner of Rev. Billy’s Chop Shop, known for its high-quality haircuts and bimonthly art showings, on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago.
After studying music performance and guitar, as well as art history, two and three-dimensional arts and silversmithing at Wichita State, Simmons wrote songs and played guitar for a number of artists on major record labels, RCA, Touch and Go, BMG and Universal, for example.
His own Evidence of a Struggle, an evolving group of artists and musicians that first coalesced in 2020 during COVID-19 lockdown, shared its own sonic statement on June 9 with the release of an eponymous 13-track album on which he plays every instrument: guitar, drums, piano, synth and violin.
Share