2019 ‘OHIO Notables’ celebrates alumni who made news – and their alma mater proud
Ohio University graduates make headlines – and their alma mater Bobcat proud – every day.
One of the many joys of producing Ohio Today News is hearing about all of the ways in which Ohio University alumni are making a difference as leaders in their industries, public servants in their communities, and sources of inspiration and support to their fellow Bobcats. We share these stories of alumni success and impact – which come from our graduates, colleagues throughout the University and weekly media reports – through both our news site and the Ohio University Alumni Association’s social media channels.
As we wrap up both a year and a decade, Ohio Today News presents its 2019 “OHIO Notables,” highlighting just a few Ohio University alumni whose achievements this year have brought notoriety to both them and their alma mater, who ignite our collective pride, and who remind us of the impact a single Bobcat can have on the world.
Ohio University alumnus and head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team Vlatko Andonovski celebrates with a member of the team following a Nov. 7 victory against Sweden in Columbus. Photo by Ben Siegel, BSVC ’02
Vlatko Andonovski, MSRSS ’18
This past fall soccer fans around the world watched as an OHIO alumnus was named the new head coach of the best women’s team in the world.
On Oct. 28, U.S. Soccer announced that Vlatko Andonovski would take the helm of the U.S. Women’s National Team, the current World Cup Champions. Andonovski is the ninth head coach and the third-youngest head coach in the team’s history.
Touted as “one of the most accomplished coaches in National Women’s Soccer League history,” Andonovski, a native of North Macedonia, played six seasons for clubs in the Macedonia Football League before coming to the United States where he played in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) and was twice named an MISL All-Star. He went on to serve as a head coach in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) for seven seasons, securing two championships with FC Kansas City and earning NWSL Coach of the Year accolades in 2013 and 2019.
Staff Sgt. Carolyn Kinzel poses for a photo at the Drug Enforcement Administration facility in Cleveland. Photo by Airman 1st Class Alexis Wade/U.S. Air National Guard
Carolyn Kinzel, BS ’18
Staff Sgt. Carolyn Kinzel is using the skills learned in OHIO’s geospatial sciences program to literally save thousands of lives in Northeast Ohio.
Committed to serving her community and her country, Kinzel joined the Air National Guard’s 179th Airlift Wing in 2015, serving as a C-130H Hercules loadmaster. Upon graduating from OHIO, she became a criminal analyst with the Ohio Air National Guard Counterdrug Task Force, working with the Drug Enforcement Administration in Cleveland.
Kinzel made headlines this past summer when she was tasked with using overdose data to determine the most effective locations in the Cleveland area to distribute fentanyl test strips. Using the skills she learned while studying geographic information sciences at OHIO, Kinzel created a map that identified targeted areas for the distribution of the overdose-preventing test strips and is credited with potentially saving 15,000 to 20,000 lives.
One of the last living Tuskegee Airmen, Lt. Col. Harold Brown will be inducted into the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame in April. Photo courtesy of Harold Brown
Harold Brown, BS ’65
Lt. Col. Harold Brown spent 23 history-making and nation-changing years in the U.S. Army Air Corps.
One of 15 new pilots to join the 332nd Fighter Group – part of the famed Tuskegee Airmen – in November 1944, Brown fought in an Army that was still segregated and, in the process, paved the way for the desegregation of the U.S. military in 1948 and the civil rights movement. Brown flew 30 combat missions in Europe during World War II before taking enemy fire that left him imprisoned in a POW camp in Germany.
Brown went on to serve in the Korean War and in the Strategic Air Command during the Cold War, to author a book about his experience as a Tuskegee Airman, and to become a champion for higher education. The story of this Bobcat’s road to an Ohio University diploma mirrors the same spirit and perseverance that has made Brown an American hero and role model.
Nanfu Wang was featured in The New Yorker after her latest documentary won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Donavon Smallwood/The New Yorker
Nanfu Wang, MA ’12
Nanfu Wang made headlines in February when her latest work, “One Child Nation,” won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
“One Child Nation” shines a light on the impact of China’s one-child policy through the stories of a family jailed after moving abandoned babies into state-run orphanages, an American couple who started a foundation to help track down girls’ biological families, and interviews with Wang’s own family. The film is the second to garner Wang attention at the nation’s largest international film festival. Her debut film, “Hooligan Sparrow,” premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival; was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; and earned her a Peabody Award, the George Polk Award, and two Emmy nominations.
In August, The New Yorker published a profile on Wang and her journey from rural China to the United States, Ohio University and to filmmaking that is making a difference.
Chris Frederick is pictured with celebrities Whoopi Goldberg and Cher during a 2013 NYC Pride event. Photo courtesy of Chris Frederick
Chris Frederick, BA ‘05
For the past 10 years, Chris Frederick, executive director of Heritage of Pride Inc., also known as NYC Pride, has been responsible for facilitating impactful experiences that have elevated New York City’s contributions to the gay rights movement. Last summer saw his and his colleague’s efforts expand to the world stage.
More than five million people from around the globe attended the NYC Pride-hosted 2019 WorldPride events held in June, the largest LGBTQ event in history and the first WorldPride to be held in the United States.
The celebration capped off Frederick’s stellar career with NYC Pride – 10 years that saw the organization grow its budget by millions, extend its financial outreach to smaller LGBTQ nonprofits, and expand its programming. Frederick announced earlier this month that he was stepping down from NYC Pride to become the managing director of global events for Out Leadership, a business network driving LGBTQ advocacy and leadership development within the workplace.
Alumnus and Nobel Prize winner Venkatraman Ramakrishnan addresses those attending Ohio University’s 2019 Graduate Commencement ceremony where he was awarded an honorary degree. Photo by Ben Siegel, BSVC ’02
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, MS ’74, PHD ’76, HON ’19
Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan will forever hold a place in Ohio University history as the first – and, thus far, only – graduate to become a Nobel Prize winner. This past May, he made OHIO history again, returning to his alma mater to receive an honorary degree and to share his story with the Ohio University community.
Ramakrishnan was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the structure and function of the ribosome, jointly with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath. He went on to receive the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine; the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honor; and to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his service to molecular biology. In 2018, he published “Gene Machine: The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome.”
Ramakrishnan is finishing out a five-year term as president of the Royal Society and is a group leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK.
Dr. John Allerding is preparing for this third trip to Antarctica where he serves as a medical officer for the Center for Polar Medical Operations.
John Allerding, DO ’85
Dr. John Allerding’s wanderlust has made him a world traveler like no other.
A board-certified family doctor, he’s practiced mostly emergency medicine and continues his role as a “travelling doctor.” Allerding served in both the Navy and the Army, deployed to combat zones in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa and as backup during fighting in Bosnia and Kosovo.
In 2014, Allerding’s self-described “restless soul syndrome” landed him on the Earth’s southernmost continent to serve as the medical officer for the Center for Polar Medical Operations. Allerding has been to Antarctica twice, serving 10 months at The South Pole Amundsen-Scott Station in 2015 and six months at Palmer Station on Anvers Island in the Antarctic Archipelago in 2018. He is one of only a handful of humans to complete the “South Pole 300,” undergoing a 300-degree temperature swing while walking nearly naked through 24 time zones, and is preparing to return to Palmer Station in 2020.
This past fall, Jennifer Lahmers moved from NYC to LA, joining a revamped “Extra” as a new correspondent.
Jennifer Lahmers, BSJ ’06
For the past five years, Jennifer Lahmers has been making a name for herself in the Big Apple, working as a news reporter for New York City’s WNYW Fox 5 before being promoted to anchoring the station’s morning news program, “Good Day Wake Up,” in 2017.
This past fall, Lahmers’ career went national as she headed from the Big Apple to the City of Angels to join a revamped “Extra.” The Daytime Emmy Award-winning, entertainment news show premiered its 26th season on Sept. 9, debuting a new format and Lahmers as a new correspondent. Working alongside the program’s host and managing editor, Billy Bush, Lahmers can now be seen coast to coast, interviewing celebrities in the studio, on the red carpet and at movie premieres. Among those she’s already interviewed are Clint Eastwood, Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Adam Sandler. To see her work on “Extra,” click here.
This past year saw Martin Jarmond named to Sports Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” for the second time in three years.
Martin Jarmond, MBA ’02, MSA ’03
Martin Jarmond is a rising star in the field of college sports.
In 2017, after stints in the athletics departments at Michigan State and Ohio State, Jarmond was named Boston College’s William V. Campbell Director of Athletics, becoming the youngest athletic director in a Power Five conference and the first African American AD in the college’s history. While securing successes in several of Boston College’s sports, Jarmond orchestrated the athletic program’s first-ever five-year strategic plan, supported by an unprecedented $150 million capital campaign; opened the college’s first student-athlete 24-7 fueling station; launched a fan council; and established a program for first-generation student-athletes.
Jarmond’s achievements have earned him the Sports Business Journal “Forty Under 40” award, one of the sports administration field’s highest honors, in both 2017 and 2019. This past fall Jarmond’s name was reportedly floated as a possible candidate for USC’s director of athletics – a position that was recently awarded to another OHIO Business Bobcat, Mike Bohn, MSA ’84.
Ohio University President M. Duane Nellis (front center) is pictured with the 2019 Alumni Awards recipients. They are (front, from left) Abdul Williams, BSC ’94; Ryan Kyes, BBA ’02, MBA ’03; Mona Miliner, BSH ’92, MHA ’94; Kyle Kondik, BSJ ’06; Elizabeth Campbell, MFA ’97; Jeffery Baran, BA ’98, MA ’98; (back, from left) Garry Hunter on behalf of his brother, Larry Hunter, BSED ’71, MED ’73; retired Brig. Gen. Mark Arnold, BSISE ’82; Julia Winkfield Stover, BSRS ’06; Anthony Webb, BSC ’76; and William Axline, BBA ’71. Photo by Jim Downard
2019 Alumni Award winners
As we close out our 2019 “OHIO Notables,” we have to give another round of applause to the 13 Ohio University graduates who were celebrated at this year’s Alumni Awards Gala for their remarkable contributions to their professions, their communities and their alma mater.
Retired Brig. Gen. Mark C. Arnold, BSISE ’82, took home top honors at the Ohio University Alumni Association’s signature Homecoming Week event. The 2019 Alumnus of the Year was commended for a life of service – to his country, to his career in business, to his community and to OHIO.
Planning is already underway for the 2020 Alumni Awards Gala, which will be celebrating its 80th year. Nominations for next year’s awards are due Dec. 31.
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Do you know an Ohio University graduate who has achieved noteworthy success or made a difference this year? Share their story in the comments below (include links to related articles, if applicable).
To read more OHIO alumni profiles, click here, and follow @OHIOAlumni on Twitter for daily updates on the achievements of your fellow Bobcats!
Julie Ciotola, Justin Thompson and Angela Woodward contributed to this article.