Page 42 - UD Magazine Vol. 31 No. 1

CLASS NOTES
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A bright memory: Johnson developed her candle idea after losing her mother, Ann Kline, a longtime UD employee.
KELLY JOHNSON, AS96, of Midlothian, Va., has launched a philanthropic venture, Wish for More Birthdays, a line of birthday candles in which 100% of net proceeds support the American Cancer Society, raising more than $50,000 to date.
SZCZEPAN BARAN, ANR97, of Natick, Mass., has been named chief scientific officer for VeriSIM, a company that uses machine learning to assess drug development.
DAVID A. PIZZI, EHD99, BSPA01M, of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., was promoted to vice president, government relations at Florida Blue, the state’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plan. He was also named chairman of the Florida Insurance Council.
2000s
APRIL MYERS, AS00, of Baton Rouge, La., and MIKE BULLARD, AS99, of Merrimack, N.H., are helping vulnerable residents purchase the land on which their manufactured homes
sit. As the communications associate and vice president of communications, respectively, for the ROC USA national nonprofit, they work to create generational housing security for low-income homeowners. Recently, they’ve partnered with PAUL D’ANGELO, BE89, of Boulder, Colo., to assist tenants of the Thistle Community Housing organization in Colorado purchase the land under the neighborhoods.
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JUSTIN FRENZEL, BE05, of Montville, N.J., JAMES GALLAGHER, AS05, of Newtown, Pa., KEVIN BLAIR, BE05, of Newtown, Pa., and CHRISTOPHER DEPATRIA, BE05,
of Montville, N.J., won the most recent Shaft Classic with a first all-Delaware alumni team in the golf tournament’s 13-year history. The annual, two-day tournament (held in 2022 at Baywood Greens in Long Neck, Del.) is invitation only. As reigning champions, the Blue Hens have already secured their spot in the 2023 event and will be looking to defend their title.
A MISSION BORN AT UD
ANDREA HODGE-JOHNSON, CAS92, is a tech architect for JP Morgan Chase & Co. In layman’s terms: she
determines which applications should be decommissioned and which will work well together. In December, she received the One JPMC Award for her contributions to the organization’s Tampa Tech Center.
“Very early on at UD, I learned the importance of networking and relationship building,” Hodge- Johnson says. “Those skills have been critical drivers of the success I’ve had.”
But more than professional accolades, the Blue Hen’s college experience shaped her as a person.
Because racial tensions ran high off campus and on during
the early ‘90s, Hodge-Johnson and her Black peers (a very small percentage of the student body back then) frequently sought solidarity in UD’s Center for Black Culture. There, they hung out, bonded and organized. Hodge-Johnson helped stage a sit-in on the steps of Smith Hall to address the public safety concerns of students of color, and
she saw firsthand the power of community to kickstart dialogue and effect change. .
Today, Hodge-Johnson is an active member of the Black Alumni Organization, and she is working with UD leaders to sponsor a scholarship for Black students interested in study abroad. During her 23-year tenure at JP Morgan Chase & Co, she’s actively championed diversity, equity and inclusion. Recently, she established the Black Women in Tech group to advocate for a demographic that comprises less than 2% of the industry’s workforce. Its reach will soon extend into Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Hodge-Johnson finds hope in an evolving world and is inspired by a new, more inclusive generation, including
her son, CHRISTIAN DORSEY, EG19. “They are
more open to building relationships across
racial, religious and cultural lines. And that is a wonderful thing.”
40 University of Delaware Magazine
Celebrity shout-out: Comedian John Oliver acknowledged this work on his late-night show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, saying the Blue Hen-heavy nonprofit is “having real success in helping tenants get financing” to protect themselves from predatory developers.
APRIL CAPOCHINO MYERS, AS00, of Baton Rouge, La., recently published a nine-part series, “The Fentanyl Project,” that uncovers the vast impact of the synthetic opioid crisis on the Baton Rouge community (aprilcapochinomyers. com). The Blue Hen is an award- winning journalist who has written for The Washington Post, National Geographic Kids, and other publications.
BRENT J. FRECCIA, AS02, EHD05M, of Wilmington, Del., was selected in the September issue of Delaware Today magazine as one of the publication’s “Top Teachers” of 2022.
MICHAEL ALEXITCH, EG05, BE11M, of Landenberg, Pa., has been appointed executive director,
U.S. Market Access Strategy for the Respiratory and Immunology and Vaccines and Immune Therapies at AstraZeneca. In his role, Alexitch will lead a team of 13 marketers working to secure affordable access for patients to AstraZeneca’s medicines.
2010s
JUAN MEDINA, TK00, of Seattle, launched the mobile app Lalo for preserving family memories. Previously, he spent 20 years in industry, including eight years