2011 Spring—Alumni News and Notes 1980s

Alan Codkind ’80 M.B.A., founder and chief executive officer of Visioneering Sports Products, LLC in Charlotte, N.C., is a guest lecturer in the Center for Entrepreneurship at the Wagner School of Business at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. He is a mentor for the Dale Tweedy Mentoring Program for Entrepreneurial Scholars within the school […]


Alan Codkind ’80 M.B.A., founder and chief executive officer of Visioneering Sports Products, LLC in Charlotte, N.C., is a guest lecturer in the Center for Entrepreneurship at the Wagner School of Business at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. He is a mentor for the Dale Tweedy Mentoring Program for Entrepreneurial Scholars within the school and served as a judge and speaker at the 9th annual Carole Moore McLeod Entrepreneur Summit in October. He resides in Sugar Grove, N.C.

Queen Utley-Smith ’80 M.S., associate professor and chair of the Master of Science in Nursing degree program at Duke University in Durham, N.C., is the director of a five-year project aimed at increasing the number of nursing students who graduate from the program. The project recently received a $1,276,000 grant through the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Advanced Nursing Education Expansion program.

Laurie Heatherington ’81 Ph.D. is the Edward Door Griffin professor of psychology at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. She received the Distinguished Contribution to Family Systems Research Award from the American Family Therapy Academy for outstanding research in the field of family therapy. The award was presented at the Academy’s 32nd Annual Meeting in June in Boulder, Colo.

Donna MacFarland ’81 (BUS), ’85 M.B.A. joined Lincoln Financial Group in Philadelphia as marketing director for the Defined Contribution business, where she oversees all marketing efforts for the company’s employeesponsored retirement plan products and services. She previously was president and founder of Symphonic Marketing, LLC.

Francis Onofrio ’81 (CLAS), president of Mason, Inc., in Bethany, Conn., was inducted into the Public Relations Society of America’s College of Fellows for his contribution to the public relations profession; he is the only inductee from New England. The award was presented at the society’s International Conference on Oct. 16, 2010, in Washington, D.C.

Janice (Tedford) Passacantando ’81 (CLAS), ’84 M.A., a private practitioner for the town of Colchester, Conn., Board of Education, was elected treasurer of the Connecticut Council of Language, Speech and Hearing Coordinators in the Public Schools.

Steve Wolfberg ’81 (CLAS), partner/president of Cronin and Company, LLC in Glastonbury, Conn., has joined the board of directors of Friends of WHUS, Inc., the nonprofit organization of alumni and friends of UConn’s student radio station. As an undergraduate, he held various management positions at WHUS. Cronin and Company is a full-service marketing communications firm ranked in the Top 10 in New England.

Lisa B. Davis ’83 (NUR), chief of the Public Health Initiatives Branch for the Connecticut Department of Public Health, received a Carolyn Ladd Widmer Outstanding Alumni Award for Leadership in Nursing. She serves on the Goodwin College Board of Trustees and the American Red Cross Blood Donor Services Board of Directors and is the president of the Northern Connecticut Black Nurses Association. She is a founding member of the Connecticut Nursing Collaborative.

John Kim ’83 (BUS), ’86 M.B.A. was recently named chief investment officer at New York Life and maintains his position of president and chief executive officer of New York Life Investments.

David Pazdar ’84 (CLAS) is co-owner of Pazdar Winery in Scotchtown, N.Y., which recently received a gold medal in the fruit category for its lemon-flavored wine, Ravishing Sunrise, at the Indy International Wine Competition at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., in August 2010.

Marianne Delaney ’85 (CLAS) is Task Force Titan Officer-in-charge at Camp Buehring in Kuwait. She was recently deployed to Kuwait in support of deployment and redeployment operations.

Kimberly St. John-Stevenson ’86 (CLAS), communications officer at Saint Luke’s Foundation of Cleveland, was named 2010 Communicator of the Year by the Cleveland chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. She joined Saint Luke’s Foundation in 2007 and has more than 20 years’ experience in marketing communications.

Rick Clark ’87 (CLAS) and Erica Clark announce the birth of their first child, Frederic, on Sept. 13, 2010, in Wilmington, N.C.

Celine Mulderrig ’88 (CLAS) and John Mulderrig announce the birth of a son, Cian John Mulderrig, on Aug. 23, 2010, in New York City. He joins a sister, Keira.

Sandra (Rodriquez) Barron ’89 (CLAS) is the author of Stay With Me, published by HarperCollins Publishers in November 2010.

Gregg Haddad ’89 (CLAS) was elected state representative for District 54, representing Mansfield and Chaplin, Conn. He previously served as deputy mayor on the Mansfield Town Council for 11 years.