Class Notes

On Feb. 24, 2024, the Cadet Corps Alumni Council and the UTA Corps of Cadets hosted the 44th Annual Military Science Hall of Honor. The event started with the formal induction ceremony in the Rosebud Theatre, which included retired Lt. Col. Mike Morrow (’74 BBA). Rebecca E. Deen, senior associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts, was the guest speaker. The luncheon followed the induction ceremony in the Bluebonnet Room, where President Jennifer Cowley was the guest speaker.

1980

Ellen Jefferson
(BA, Spanish) has been appointed interim vice president for human resources at the University of District of Columbia. She has been a human resources consultant with PRM Consulting for more than 20 years. Before that, she held human resources leadership positions at Howard University, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Reebok International, and Pearson Government Solutions.

1983

David Wayne Daniel
(BBA) is the chief executive officer at Progressive Laboratories, where he has worked for 20 years. Prior to that, he was the president of Prime Nutrition for 16 years.

1985

Patti Jones Franz
(MA, Interdisciplinary Studies) taught in Arlington ISD for 37 years before retiring in 2017. Since then, she has been the president and corresponding secretary/editor for the Arlington chapter of Beta Phi of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, which provides grants for AISD educators and scholarships for AISD students seeking to enter education fields.

1986

James Minmier
(BS, Electrical Engineering) has served as chairman of the board of directors for Independence Contract Drilling since April 2023 and has been on the board since 2018. He has more than 32 years of experience in the drilling industry and served as chairman of the board of the International Association of Drilling Contractors in 2014.

1992

Matthew Craig
(MA, Civil Engineering) received the Honorable Ray LaHood Man of the Year Award from the Greater Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar. The award recognizes men who advocate for the advancement of women in the transportation field and who have made an outstanding contribution to the industry. Craig is the deputy practice leader at Halff Transportation, where he has worked for 40 years.

UT System Regent Kelcy Warren (’78 BS, Civil Engineering) received the Outstanding Philanthropist Award at the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ annual Philanthropy Day event. In 2023, Warren made a generous $12 million gift to help elevate UTA to the forefront of the growing resource and energy engineering field.

1994

Kee Chan Sin
(MPA) co-hosted a webinar on the role of green and sustainability-linked bonds and why corporations issue them. He is vice president and assistant treasurer for capital markets strategy and corporate finance at Verizon.

1995

Mark L. Baum
(BA, Political Science) is a founder, chairman of the board of directors, and chief executive officer of Harrow Health, formerly Imprimis Pharmaceuticals. Other companies he has founded include YesRx, Melt Pharmaceuticals, Surface Ophthalmics, Visionology.com, and Eton Pharmaceuticals.

Matthew Loh
(BS, Mechanical Engineering) has been the chief executive officer of Asia Times Square, located in Grand Prairie, for 16 years. Loh worked in the field of mechanical engineering for about five years before joining his family’s business, Hong Kong Market Place in Arlington. In 2005, his family bought property in Grand Prairie, where the grocery store anchoring Asia Times Square has operated since 2008.

1997

John B. Evans
(MA, ’94 PhD, Social Work) published a revised version of his book last year. Why You Do That draws on his decades of experience in clinical practice and academia to analyze personality traits that shape human behavior.

1999

Lawrence Whitman
(PhD, Industrial Engineering) has been named dean of the Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology at Kennesaw State University, the second-largest engineering college in Georgia. He was an engineer in the aerospace industry for 10 years prior to entering academia.

2006

Kenneth Masenda
(BBA, Management), dean for student engagement at Blinn College, has been selected as a fellow for the Texas Success Center Leadership Academy, a one-year leadership development program that provides community college leaders with tools to positively impact student success.

Lisa Van Brunt (’15 BSN) has been promoted to chief executive officer of Washakie Medical Center in Worland, Wyoming. She has worked in health care for 25 years, with 20 of them being in the Worland hospital. Her goal is for Washakie Medical Center to maintain its standing as the most trusted health care partner in the area. “I want our hospital to be a place that people want to come to for the quality of our health care and how we make them feel while they’re here, because we genuinely care about them,” she says.

2008

Wenguel Yohannes
(BS, Architecture) is now the senior project manager at the Dallas-Fort Worth office of KAI 360 Construction Services. She oversees building design and construction program management initiatives and ensures the execution of projects. She has more than 16 years of experience in the field.

2011

Alison M. Etherly
(BA, Criminology and Criminal Justice) has been promoted to attorney at Orsinger, Nelson, Downing, & Anderson after earning her law degree. She brings an insider’s perspective to family law issues, focusing her practice on matters involving divorce, child custody, family violence, mediation, and property division.

Donald Fulbright
(MA, Criminal Justice) is the new assistant chief of police for Lewisville Police Department. He worked at the Arlington Police Department for more than 22 years, holding a variety of roles during that time, including patrol officer, accident investigator, detective, robbery and gang unit supervisor, patrol commander, special events and event management command, and SWAT/fugitive unit commander.

2012

Marcie Beck
(MEd, Educational Leadership and Administration) is the new principal of Academy Intermediate School in Little River Academy, Texas. She comes to the district from Belton Independent School District, where she spent almost 20 years in various roles including principal, assistant principal, instructional coach, and teacher.

2014

Omar Castillon
(BA, Broadcasting) has been working in live television for nine years and is now an APC operator at Univision 23. He says, “Most of my time being a student at UTA was special. Professors such as Lance Liguez, Andrew Clark, and Julian Rodriguez, among other professors, helped shape my career into what it is today.”

Madison Skelton
(BS, Biology) attended physician’s assistant school, graduating in August 2020, and she began working as a physician’s assistant at the Waxahachie Office for Women’s Health Specialists of North Texas in October 2020.

Amy Atkins (’18 MPA) has been named the new parks and recreation director for the city of Harker Heights in Texas. She brings 20 years of parks and recreation experience to her role, previously working for the parks and recreation departments in College Station and Pflugerville. About her online Master of Public Administration program, she says, “I was part of a fantastic cohort of individuals from different parts of the country. We all decided to attend graduation to meet for the first time in person. The MPA degree I earned at UTA has been instrumental in my professional success in the private and public sectors.”

Gregory Will
(BA, Political Science) was elected to the Keller City Council in May after serving on the planning and zoning commission and the zoning board of adjustment. He has spent the last seven years working for the federal government in the Office of Disaster Assistance. He is also on the board of directors for the Keller Rotary Club.

2015

Narine Salomone
(BSN) began working at Bronx Center in New York City as an agency-licensed practical nurse. She worked her way up to unit manager and is now the director of nursing services, a role she has held since 2018.

2016

Emma Sandhu
(MSN, Health Care Administration and Management) has been named the chief quality and patient safety officer at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) following a nationwide search. She brings more than 30 years of health care experience to the role, previously serving as chief nursing officer at CHOC at Mission Hospital.

2019

Fran Dillard
(MBA, Public Relations; ’94 BA, Journalism) is the vice president and chief diversity inclusion officer of Micron Technology. Previous roles she has held include executive corporate director of enterprise global diversity and inclusion and executive director of missiles and fire controls at Lockheed Martin, head of diversity and inclusion at Texas Instruments, senior employee relations manager for JPMorgan Chase & Co., and global human resources business partner for Flowserve.

2020

India Edwards
(BA, English) earned a master’s degree in journalism from New York University. She is now the updates editor at mindbodygreen and has previously written for New York Magazine’s “The Strategist,” Into the Gloss, Courier magazine, and D Magazine. Topics she has covered range from entrepreneurship to beauty to health technology.

Brayden Garcia
(BA, Journalism) is a service journalism reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Prior to that, he worked at The Dallas Morning News, where he started as a freelance reporter and later became an intern in the education lab.

2023

Aniket Lode
(MS, Industrial Engineering) works as a capacity industrial engineer at Intel Corporation. He says, “My coursework was like a treasure chest of knowledge, filled with the keys to unlock the mysteries of manufacturing efficiency. It covered a wide spectrum of subjects that would soon prove indispensable in my role.”

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