French & Italian

CONTENTS

Alumni notebook

Before 1960

Martha Eckert Schaas, BA'33, has been an active author, poet, library director, musician, composer, educator, and lecturer. She was listed in the 55th edition of Who's Who in America. Her juvenile works, "Lew Wallace" and "Duke Ellington," were recently reprinted by Patria Press. While she was at IUB, she started IU Sing in 1932, and her work with the mortar board opened the doors of the new "Men's" union to women students for the Dames Ball. She holds licenses to teach French and Spanish, a MS in library administration, and a music minor. She lives in Palm Bay, Fla.

William D. Romey, BA'52, continues to lecture aboard cruise ships in geography, geology, oceanography, and history. He and his wife, Lucretia Leonard Romey, BA'55, were aboard M/S Explorer in the Antarctic in February-March 2000 while he was a lecturer-naturalist. In summer 2000, they both taught for the Semester at Sea Program through the University of Pittsburgh. William continues to market his new book, Plus Ça Change: For the Love of France, about student and faculty life in France from 1950 to 1996. When they're not out traveling, they call East Orleans, Mass., home.

Barbara N. Sargent-Baur, MA'57, PhD'60, an emerita professor at the University of Pittsburgh since 1993, now has the leisure to be a full-time scholar working on French medieval literature. Her two latest books are La Destre et la senestre: Étude sur le Conte du Graal de Chrétien de Troyes and Philippe de Remi, Le Roman de la Manekine. The second volume, which rounds out the complete works of this 13th-century romancer and lyricist, was published early this year. Recent articles and reviews, mainly on Philippe, Chrétien, and François Villon, have appeared in Romania and Romance Philology; other articles have come out in mélanges recently published in Cambridge, Paris, and Amsterdam. She and her husband, Robert, live in Pittsburgh.

1960s

Sharon Elliott Gagnon, BA'62, was elected president of Harvard University's Board of Overseers for 2000-01. She received her master's and doctorate in French literature at Harvard after spending several years in France as a Fulbright Scholar. She has taught French language and literature at such institutions as Harvard, Vanderbilt, Alaska Methodist, and the University of Alaska at Anchorage. She and her husband, Bruce, live in Anchorage, Alaska, and have two children, Anne and Elliot.

Paula T. Vitetta, BA'64, teaches high school Spanish and is a backup adjunct instructor of French for Syracuse University Project Advance. She and her husband, Nick, live in Mahopac, N.Y., and can be reached at morganmouth@aol.com.

Alex Sharma, MA'66, MA'72, MS'74, PhD'81, gave a workshop on "Cartoons for the Classroom" at the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language conference in Brighton, England, in April. He is an associate professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. His e-mail is Alsha@vax2.concordia.ca.

Patricia A. Staver, BA'66, MAT'69, EdD'79, an assistant professor of secondary education at Kansas State University, was one of four KSU faculty members to receive a 2001 Commerce Bank Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award. The $2,500 awards are funded by the William T. Kemper Foundation and the Commerce Bancshares Foundation in recognition of outstanding undergraduate teaching at Kansas State. Staver joined KSU in 1988 for three years and then returned again in 1995. She lives in Manhattan, Kan.

Judith A. Auer, MA'67, MM'71, taught voice at the Opera Festival di Roma in July 2000. Last August, she gave lectures on operas being performed in Santa Fe for the Plaza Resolana Conference Center. She and her husband, George Lawrence, live in Boulder, Colo.

George M. Koonce, Jr., MAT'68, was elected to serve as chair of the commission on secondary and middle schools for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools for 2001. Koonce is the Region VI superintendent for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, while he maintains a relationship at the university level, working as a consultant at the Florida School Desegregation Center at the University of Miami and as an adjunct professor at the University of Miami and Nova Southeastern University. He lives in Opa Locka, Fla.

Ellyn E. Lanz, BA'69, MAT'70, is associate principal of Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, Ill. Previously she was the instructional supervisor of foreign language development for six years. She can be reached at elanz@glenbrook.k12.il.us.

Beverly A. Morisset, BA'69, is a retired paralegal living in Brussels, Belgium. She enjoys teaching English on a volunteer basis to Belgian retirees and French to the ladies of the Women's International Club.

Jane Stuart, MA'69, PhD'71, is retired but continues in feminist writing; she finished a small chapbook, "Sestinas," in February 2000. In her free time, she enjoys latch-hooking rugs and needlepoint, and she is learning Spanish for fun. She is a grandmother of three; Joshua, Jonah, and Jeremiah Juergens-Meyer belong to her son, Conrad, and his wife, Cherity. Stuart's other son, Erik, is working toward a master's degree in English with an emphasis on Shakespeare and writing. She lives in Greenup, Ky.

1970s

William C. Carter, PhD'71, had his work, Marcel Proust: A Life, published by the Yale University Press in March 2000. It is the most comprehensive biography of Proust written in English. He and his wife, Lynn, live in Birmingham, Ala. He can be e-mailed at billcart@uab.edu.

After living in Germany for 15 years, Robert Cirillo, BA'71, MA'75, MBA'75, moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1999 to take on a high-level finance position with Legato Systems. In his spare time, he is an active classical guitarist. He can be reached at rcirillo@ legato.com.

Judy A. Tyrrell, BA'71, MA'74, is a partner at the Indianapolis law firm Tabbert Hahn Earnest & Weddle.

Diane Burnside Gaede, BA'73, MS'77, teaches recreation and tourism at the University of Northern Colorado. She received her PhD in natural resource recreation and tourism from Colorado State University in 1999. She and her husband, Jerry, have three children, Gretchen, Drew, and George. They live in Fort Collins, Colo. Diane can be e-mailed at dgaede@hhs.unco.edu.

Marsha R. Bradford, BA'74, JD'80, MS'96, was named safe and civil city director in February 2000 for Bloomington, Ind., where she and her husband, Harold Dumes, live. Previously she was the Middle Way legal advocacy program director and an adolescent and family therapist at Meadows Behavioral Care Center.

Claire L. Gaudiani, MA'74, PhD'74, has been president of Connecticut College in New London, Conn., for 13 years. She was elected a fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999. She and her husband, David Burnett, PhD'73, have been married for 32 years and live in nearby Groton, Conn.

Faye E. Tippy, BA'75, MBA'77, was president in 2000 of the Northwest Indiana chapter of the Neal-Marshall Alumni Club. She also writes a column for the Gary Post Tribune business section titled "Your Business." She lives in Gary, Ind.

Thomas F. Broden, MA'76, PhD'86, and his wife, Marcia Stephenson, MA'81, PhD'89, were both tenured at Purdue University in 1998. He is chair of French at Purdue and has just co-edited the Sorbonne doctoral dissertation of A.J. Greimas (on the French vocabulary of fashion in 1830) with Presses Universitaires de France. He can be reached at broden@purdue.edu.

Mary M. Bracken, BA'77, has been working in telecommunications since graduating from IU. She spent 17 years in commercial television, first in production, then programming and management. She now enjoys working in public television and lives in Des Moines, Iowa, where she grew up. Her husband, Bob, owns a video production business. They have two kids and are living "happily ever after" IU. Her e-mail is mary@iptv.org.

Suzanne Boeldt Kriscunas, MA'77, MBA'81, along with three partners, created Legacy Private Capital Partners, a private equity fund formed to invest in middle market companies. She and her husband, Robert Kriscunas, JD'77, live in Dallas, and she can be reached at sbkriscunas@ legacyfund.com.

1980s

Geoffrey R. Brigham, BA'81, completed a two-year tour as the senior liaison legal advisor for the U.S. Department of Justice in July 1999. After his tour, he returned to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida in Miami and continued his work as a federal prosecutor.

John P. Welle, MA'82, PhD'83, received the 1999 Raiziss-de Palchi Book Prize from the Academy of American Poets for his book, Peasants Wake for Fellini's "Casanova" and Other Poems by Andrea Zanzotto, which he edited and translated with Ruth Feldman. The award is given for a distinguished translation of modern Italian poetry and carries a $5,000 prize. He and his wife, Mary Kay, BS'96, live in South Bend, Ind.

Diana L. Mercer, BA'85, JD'88, with Marsha Kline Pruett, published the guidebook Your Divorce Advisor. Diana is a divorce mediator with her own firm, Peace Talks Mediation Services, and an adjunct professor in alternative dispute resolution at the University of LaVerne. She and her husband, Steve Sherman, live in Santa Monica, Calif., and she can be reached at diana1159@aol.com.

Natalie R. Vaswani, BA'85, is a product manager for Morningstar and lives in Arlington Heights, Ill. She participated in the overseas program to Strasbourg, France, in 1983-84.

Michael D. Brand, BA'88, MA'91, was awarded a three-week scholarship to participate in a workshop for French teachers in July 2000. The workshop,"Remise au niveau linguistique," was held at the Université de Caen-Basse-Normandie and at the Centre Internationale d'Études Pédagogiques in Sèvres. He also had an article titled "Teaching About the French-Speaking World Outside of France" published in the anthology French F.L.E.S. Around the World 2000 last fall. He and his wife, Claudia, live in New Orleans, La.

1990s

Sara M. Greene, BA'90, MPH'92, is the program director for the Cancer Research Network, a consortium of 10 non-profit research centers studying cancer prevention and control in managed care settings. She lives in Seattle, Wash.

Christopher Momenee, MA'90, had his romantic comedy film script "Time Flies" purchased by Columbia Pictures in March 2000. He is living in New York City and can be e-mailed at ejmomenee@qwest internet.net.

Heather M. Brown, BA'91, joined the Peace Corps and is living and working in Sofia, Bulgaria. Since September 2000 she has taught English to high school students. She can be e-mailed at bruyere_98@yahoo .com and has a Web site with her journal and information at www.geocities.com/bruyere_98/.

Brynn K. Myers, BA'91, has been the associate director for institutional support at the New York City Ballet since 1998, raising more than $7.5 million annually from foundations and government agencies to support artistic and educational programming. She received her MA in arts administration from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1995. She has also worked with such arts organizations as an opera company, a modern art museum, and a national service organization for contemporary American composers. She can be reached at bmyers@nycballet.com.

Mary Beth Vogl, MA'91, PhD'98, presented papers at conferences in Aix-en-Provence, France, and in Fes, Morocco, in spring 1999. She also spent five weeks in Cameroon, Africa, with a group of teachers led by Virginia De Lancey (IU African Studies). The trip was funded by a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Grant. She and her husband, Mohammed Hirchi, BA'91, MA'93, teach at Colorado State University and live in Fort Collins, Colo.

Peter G. Daniels, BA'92, graduated from the LoyolaUniversity Chicago School of Law in 1998 and is practicing with O'Hagen Smith & Amundsen in Wheaton, Ill. He was married to Jill Beda Daniels on Oct. 2, 1999; Matt DeGroodt, BA'92, was the best man. Peter and Jill had their first child in December last year.

Kirk Riutta, BA'92, was awarded a master's in international policy at the May 2000 commencement of the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif. After graduating from IUB, he served in the Peace Corps in Morocco.

Jessica T. De Pinto, MA'93, joined the corporate finance practice group of Dykema Gossett of Chicago in March 2000. She received her JD from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago-Kent, and lives in Westchester, Ill.

Kristin Klinger, BA'93, is a producer at HMS Media, a Chicago-area arts and entertainment production company. She was married to Drew Thomas, of Evanston, Ill., on Oct.14, 2000. She can be reached at kklinger@ameritech.net.

Andrea O'Sullivan, BA'93, received a master's in occupational therapy from New York University in May 2000. She was married in December 1999. She lives in Edison, N.J.

Alexandra Streeter, BA'93, MA'95, writes that she and her husband, Paul Streeter, BA'94, have lived in the beautiful pacific Northwest in Olympia, Wash., for five years and have a son, Ian. Alexandra can be reached at ahstreeter@aol.com.

Elizabeth M. Wyatt, BA'93, MAJ'97, is a reporter for the Idaho Statesman in Idaho's capital city, Boise. She can be reached at lizwyatt@yahoo.com.

Chenise Long, BA'94, studies gender-based learning in the classroom, specifically focusing on involuntary gestures and biases that exist in learning environments. She and her husband, Albert, MPA'96, live in Indianapolis. She can be e-mailed at rglmil@yahoo.com.

Barbara Casillas Ochoa, BA'95, is an associate editor for the Colonial Latin American Historical Review at the Spanish Colonial Research Center in Albuquerque, N.M. She can be reached at teremuso@unm.edu.

Megan L. Bishop, BA'96, JD'99, joined Baker & Daniels in Fort Wayne, Ind. as an associate in May 2000. She can be reached at mlbishop@bakerd .com.

Joyce E. Dixon-Fyle, MA'96, PhD'99, MLS'99, is the coordinator of collection development at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. She can be reached at joyfyle@depauw.edu.

Aimee C. George, BA'96, a sales representative in the vehicle leasing department at LaSalle Bank, was promoted to officer in 2000. She and her husband, Dale, bought a loft in Chicago and moved there last November.

On Sept. 25, 1999, Michelle D. Hughes, BA'96, was married to Darrell A. Hughes, BA'95, who graduated from Capital Law School in May 1999. Michelle is a corporate manager/special projects for BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio.

Kelly O'Neal, BA'96, joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee majority staff as a legislative correspondent in September 1999. Prior to that she was a foreign affairs staff assistant at the American Enterprise Institute. She received her master's in French studies and international relations from American University after leaving IU.

After getting certified at the Pilates Center in Boulder, Colo., Kyra Himmelbaum, BA'97, teaches Pilates and lives in New York. She studies with Zvi Gotheiner and dances for the Elinor Coleman Dance Ensemble in Soho. She spent January 2000 performing at Symphony Space with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, playing Kate in The Pirates of Penzance and Melissa in Princess Ida in repertory. Before that, she spent nine months on the road in the musical Carousel in the ensemble and as an understudy for the role Carrie.

Wendy I. Levithan, MA'98, is teaching second-, third-, and fourth-year French at Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn. She finds herself surprised to be serving on the Student-Faculty Council and coaching JV tennis as well.

Darian Lindle, BA'99, was an intern in company management at the Steppenwolf Theatre Co. until September 2000, when she moved to Seattle to become an artistic intern at the Seattle Repertory Theatre for a year. She can be reached at d_lindle@yahoo.com.

2000s

Laura Dennis-Bay, PhD'00, and her husband, Mark Bay, have been hired tenure-track at Cumberland College in Kentucky. She will be presenting a paper during a session on Teaching in the Profession at the MLA Convention this year. Next year she will present a paper and chair a session at the Cincinnati Romance Languages Conference.

Kate Paesani, PhD'00, has a tenure-track job at Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich. She is responsible for the coordination of basic language courses, teaching French language and linguistics at graduate and undergraduate levels, and advising the graduate students in the Master of Arts in Language Learning Program.

Daria Roche, PhD'00, completed an article with Rosemary Lloyd on a previously unpublished letter by George Sand. The letter, which they found in the Lilly Library, will be published with the article.

Jolene Vos-Camy, PhD'00, and her husband, Pierre Camy, MA'98, announce the birth of their first child, Julien James Camy, born Oct. 3, 2000. Jolene is currently on the tenure track at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Pierre is completing his student teaching to become a high school instructor.

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Last updated: October 16, 2000
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