Meet the Alumni Association Award Recipients for 2012. Each year, these prestigious awards are presented to individuals who have proven to be successful leaders in their professions or communities, or have demonstrated outstanding service and commitment to Drexel. In keeping with the November Year of the Dragon theme of Dragons Celebrating Dragons by saying “thanks,” the Alumni Association asked each recipient the same question: “If you were to thank a person or group at Drexel, who would it be, and why?”
For more information, including award descriptions and details on how to make a nomination for the 2013 Alumni Association Awards, visit drexel.edu/alumni/honors_awards.asp.
Anthony Bucci ’04, Alumni Entrepreneur Award Recipient
As a founding partner of RevZilla.com, Anthony Bucci helped drive revenues from $0 to mid-eight figures in less than four years without raising outside capital. As the business continues its rapid growth, Bucci oversees creative, marketing, content and media strategy, as well as business development initiatives. He has a decade of experience in consumer-facing e-commerce as part of his 15-plus years in software development.
“While there were many that taught me different lessons during my Drexel experience, I think my biggest thank you would go to Toni McMenamin, founder of the Pennoni Honors program. Current students unfortunately won’t have the chance to enjoy her as she lost her battle with cancer a short time after I graduated, but Toni was a positive guiding force in my undergrad life. Whether keeping me informed on the latest opportunity from the fledgling Honors program, offering friendly advice on school or life, or helping me wrangle Banner Web, Toni offered support with a genuine warmth. I am sure many would echo my sentiment as well.”
Barry Burkholder ’62, ’70, Golden Dragon Society Award Recipient
Barry Burkholder became president and chief executive officer of Bank United (Texas) in 1991, an $18 billion institution which was sold in 2001. He became a Drexel Trustee in 1998 and continues to serve on the Board as chair of Drexel’s Investment Committee.
“Coming from a small town with good grades but not a serious attitude toward education, I found a role model in my ‘big brother’ at Alpha Pi Lambda fraternity. Bob Quinn, ’59, was an outstanding student who encouraged all freshmen in the house to study and he paid particular attention to my efforts. Bob later earned his Phd at Princeton, taught at Penn State and ultimately joined the Drexel faculty. Bob passed away a few years ago, but I’m sure he changed the lives of many students along the way.”
John Gerlach ’55, Golden Dragon Society Award Recipient
John Gerlach is currently the senior business executive in the College of Business at Sacred Heart University, serves on the Boards of Directors of several corporations in the United States and in France, and makes venture capital type investments in startup companies. He remains active in Theta Chi Fraternity, and as a member of the Sports Fans of the ’50s, and has volunteered as a guest speaker for programs at the LeBow College of Business.
“I have to thank a person and a group for my success during and beyond my years at Drexel. The person is Dr. John Clark, associate dean for graduate programs at LeBow, who encouraged me to get an MBA and then gave me the opportunity to teach a course at Drexel which subsequently led me to a second career in academia. The group is my fraternity brothers at Theta Chi, who were an enormous help in developing my social skills, which were sorely lacking when I matriculated, having grown up in a small town in the coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania.”
John “Jack” Giegerich, Special Distinction Award Recipient
While enrolled as a Drexel student, Jack Giegerich’s son Steven tragically passed away in a motorcycle accident. In July 1984, following Steven’s death, Giegerich established the Steven E. Giegerich Memorial Fellowship. The fellowship is awarded annually to one or more graduate students in Drexel’s Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. Since its founding, more than 40 Drexel students have benefited from the fellowship.
“My thank you goes to Dr. J. Richard Weggel ‘64, chairman of the Civil Engineering Department when the Steven E. Giegerich scholarship was formed in the fall of 1984. Since I am not a Drexel alumnus, Rich was the face of Drexel for me at that time. Rich worked with me in writing Steve’s scholarship and also started a tradition, which still exists, of a Giegerich Scholar Annual Luncheon where current and past scholarship recipients gather with professors, and I get an opportunity meet the newest recipients and chat with former Giegerich Scholars. Rich and I continue to be in contact. He nominated me for the Special Distinction Award for 2012.”
Sandra Lee Sheller ’04, ’05, Service to Profession Award
Sandra Lee Sheller is a licensed professional counselor, Board-certified art therapist and family therapist, seeking to improve the lives of traumatized and marginalized families and children. In order to continue to address economic and social disparity, Sheller and her husband established The Sheller Family Foundation which is now helping with the expansion of Drexel’s 11th Street Family Health Services Center, and has assisted with a collaborative program between Drexel’s Public Health Department and The Salvation Army.
“To say thank you to only one person at Drexel is impossible. My thank you must be to all of the faculty, administrators and other staff I have encountered during years of involvement with this great institution. You know who you are, for you have exhibited expertise and passion in your area of specialty and a dedication to the school and the students that goes beyond job description and paystub hours. While Drexel’s buildings are changing the landscape of the city, Drexel’s employees are helping to birth a new generation of leaders in a multitude of fields. What makes Drexel unique is that it operates at a state-of-the-art level in so many areas that it allows students, board members and affiliates to dream big, think of big picture collaborations, and be at the forefront of new trends in education, industry, service delivery and technology.”
Margery “Meg” Lockard ’85, ’92 Special Distinction Award
Prior to joining the Department of Health Sciences at Drexel, Meg Lockard was part of the Physical Therapy faculties at several universities, including Hahnemann University, Arcadia University and Temple University. Her current teaching focus at Drexel includes anatomy and physiology, and musculoskeletal pathology to nursing and health science students. She also teaches amputation and prosthetic devices to physical therapy students and participates in problem-based learning clinical correlation courses for physical therapy students.
“I would like to say thank you to all the folks in the Anatomy Department at Hahnemann University when I did my Ph.D. back in the early 1990s. Many of these same people are now my co-workers here at Drexel in the Health Sciences Department of the College of Nursing and Health Professions: Mike Kennedy, Ph.D., chair of Health Sciences, Joe Rubertone ’96, PT, Ph.D., Al Haroian, Ph.D., Pete Meyer, Ph.D. and my research adviser, Dennis DePace, Ph.D., Drexel College of Medicine. Back then, and now, these folks are like family. They are all outstanding teachers and mentors who modeled the excellence, academic rigor and humor that continues to be at the core of my own approach to teaching and learning. It’s their encouragement and flexibility that has allowed me to engage in the community service activities for which the Drexel Alumni Association honored me with this award.”
Kevin Loftus ’87, Silver Dragon Society Award
After working briefly for a bridge contractor in Southern New Jersey, Kevin Loftus formed Loftus Construction, Inc. in 1994. Loftus Construction has become one of the pre-eminent bridge construction firms in the Delaware Valley. Since 2006, Loftus has served as chair for the College of Engineering Advisory Board. In addition to his work with the College, he is on the Board of Directors for the Associated Pennsylvania Contractors.
“There were many people who greatly influenced my time at Drexel as an undergrad, including my roommates Don Heckman ’87 and Charlie Huff ’87, and professors Ed Doheny and Rich Weggel ’64 but if I had to pick one person to whom I feel I am forever indebted for my Drexel experience, I would have to say Dr. Joe Martin, professor in Drexel’s Engineering Department. Throughout my college career, I had to balance school work, co-op work and a number of other jobs I needed to pay tuition. More than once, I found myself in front of Joe Martin to discuss my presence on the academic probation list. Without his thoughtful guidance, advice, prodding, badgering and encouragement, I doubt I would have graduated and I cannot possibly imagine how my life would have turned out without Joe’s involvement.”
Rachel Schwartz ’05, ’11, Young Alumni Achievement Award
Rachel Schwartz is the math specialist for kindergarten through eighth grade at New Foundations Charter School in Northeast Philadelphia. As the math specialist, Schwartz has worked with colleagues to help raise standardized test scores from 77 percent proficient or advanced to more than 90 percent proficient or advanced. She also regularly provides professional development at her school to share best practices for mathematics instruction and to encourage the use of technology.
“I hope I have thanked her before, but I would say thank you to Dr. Mary Jo Grdina. I was fortunate enough to have Dr. Grdina as my professor for a few courses during my time as an undergraduate student at Drexel University. Her passion for learning and teaching, especially in the field of science, is inspiring and contagious.”
Jackie Taylor McClure ’87, Silver Dragon Society Award
Jackie McClure is the contracts manager at Ingerman Construction Company (ICC), located in Cherry Hill, N.J. She has volunteered with the Drexel University Alumni Association Board of Governors since 2005, and has held such roles as an Alumni Ambassador, vice president of the Drexel Interfraternity Alumni Association and co-chair of the Alumni Club of South Jersey. A longtime alumnae chapter adviser for Delta Zeta Sorority, McClure was recognized by Drexel’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life in 2002 as Adviser of the Year.
“I would like to thank the sisters of Delta Zeta Sorority for inviting me to be part of an amazing sisterhood that continues to enrich my life to this day. I honed my organizational and leadership abilities, as well as my love for giving back, while a collegian. I continue to use all those skills today in my professional life and in my personal life as an active volunteer supporting other women and the University. Without the support of my collegiate sisters, I’m 100 percent positive I would have never completed my college education.”
Ann Weiss ’73, Service to Community Award
Using her own personal funds and time, Ann Weiss has dedicated a large piece of her life to research and produced a landmark book on the families of the last Jewish victims of the Nazi Labor Camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. She has directed documentary films on psychiatry and the Holocaust, and has curated photo exhibitions which travel world-wide. In addition, and principally, Weiss created and directs an educational non-profit foundation, Eyes from the Ashes, that uses the past, especially the past of the Holocaust, to try and create a better future for all people.