The University of Vermont Alumni Association and UVM Foundation honored outstanding graduates and faculty at its annual Reunion & Homecoming weekend celebration on Saturday, October 3, 2015.
The “Celebration of Excellence” event featured remarks by UVM president Tom Sullivan, with award citations presented by Alumni Association president Kristina Pisanelli and UVM Foundation president and CEO Richard Bundy, to the following honorees:
Outstanding Young Alumni Award
2015 University of Vermont Alumni Association Outstanding Young Alumni Award
to Joseph Thomas ’08, Seattle, Wash.
Joseph Thomas is a native of Puerto Rico who graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx, New York. He arrived at the University of Vermont as a shy teenager in 2004 but quickly made his presence felt on campus. As a member of the Spirit and Leadership floor in Harris-Millis residence hall, he developed a passion for public service, becoming president of Alianza Latina, a multicultural advocacy and support group, and a student coordinator of UVM’s Orientation Program. His academic career caught fire in the second semester of freshman year, when he discovered that government could be a career as well as an interest. Thomas majored in political science and Spanish. After graduation, when it was time to find a job that exploited his newfound skills, his UVM connections came through. J.P. Dowd ’86, legislative director for Senator Patrick Leahy, had heard him make a presentation for UVM Admissions in Washington, D.C., and was so impressed he offered him an internship on the spot. That led to a four-year stint as a staff assistant for the majority on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, which Leahy then chaired. Today, Thomas is a law student at Seattle University. He is a member of the UVM Alumni Association Board of Directors, the Alumni Association Diversity Committee, and has participated in UVM career networking events in Washington, D.C. and New York City. Thomas has helped to grow the alumni community in Seattle and is one of the leaders of the Seattle Affinity Group. He is a co-leader of the new Legal Affinity Group and has participated in the annual ALANA Alumni & Student Panel networking event on campus. He helped to plan the first Alumni of Color Reunion since 1986, and he supported the Alumni Association in launching the Alumni of Color Affinity Group.
Alumni Achievement Award
2015 University of Vermont Alumni Association Achievement Award
to Elizabeth Burke Bryant ’79, East Greenwich, R.I.
As founder and executive director of Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, Elizabeth Burke Bryant has been a powerful voice for children in the state’s halls of power across two decades. Her work creating and leading the policy and research organization focused on the health, safety, education, economic security, and development of Rhode Island’s children has made her a national leader in child advocacy. The annual Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook provides data on dozens of child welfare measures and is considered an invaluable resource for policymakers, community leaders, and media. A quarterly Issue Brief Series and monthly cable television program also work to inform key stakeholders. Bryant presents the Factbook to the governor, congressional delegation, and statewide officials at a high-profile annual breakfast attended by six hundred people. The event is considered a “must attend” function by Rhode Island’s political insiders. KIDS COUNT has helped change the lives of thousands of children. Progress spurred includes the expansion of health insurance to 94 percent of Rhode Island children; increased access to dental care for low-income children; Rhode Island’s Pre-K Program; and the creation of the Rhode Island Nurse Family Partnership Program for infants born at high risk, among others. Bryant’s husband, Dan Bryant ’79, is also a UVM alum, and the couple earned law degrees from George Washington University Law School in 1985. “There’s still so much work to do,” she says. “We know that getting a high-quality education has always been the road out of poverty. Every day we approach our work with that in mind and strive to make a difference through public policy in the lives of these children.”
2015 University of Vermont Alumni Association Achievement Award
to Frederick Mandell ’61, MD’64, Brookline, Mass.
Dr. Frederick Mandell has been involved with the medical, research and educational complexities of the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) for some forty years. As the co-director of the Massachusetts Center for Sudden Infant Death during that time, he has initiated programs and research initiatives that have influenced the local, national and international SIDS community. He has served as vice chairman of the National SIDS Foundation, contributed original research, book chapters and abstracts, and served on national and international panels including those sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. For the past twenty years Dr. Mandell has been involved in the SIDS educational programs and a research initiative with the Lakota Sioux in South Dakota, where SIDS rates are among the highest on Earth. His brochure on sudden infant death syndrome for the Sioux Nation, written with medicine elder Sydney Keith, has been used by most U.S. tribes as a standard of SIDS information for Native American Indian families. For his work among Native American Indian peoples, he has been honored with the eagle feather and an Indian name, “Black Goose,” from the Oglala Sioux Nation and the special honor of being a pipe carrier. A long-time member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Mandell is presently senior associate in medicine at The Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston. He has received numerous honors and awards in the course of his career, including the Dean’s Lifetime Award for Service to the Community from Harvard Medical School and the Service to Medicine and the Community Award from the University of Vermont College of Medicine Alumni Association. He is currently president-elect of the UVM Medical Alumni Association’s Alumni Executive Committee.
2015 University of Vermont Alumni Association Achievement Award
to Jacqueline A. Noonan, MD’54, Lexington, Ky.
Jacqueline A. Noonan, a Burlington, Vermont native, is emerita professor & former chair of pediatrics at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. She studied chemistry at Albertus Magnus College and earned her M.D. from the University of Vermont College of Medicine in 1954. She began her career at the University of Iowa as their first pediatric cardiologist, moving to the University of Kentucky medical school in 1961, where she served for more than 40 years. In 1963, she became the first person to characterize a hereditary disorder typified by heart malformations and accompanied by a unique set of physical characteristics, a disorder that would later be named “Noonan Syndrome.” She was also the first to describe hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Dr. Noonan was the 2009 recipient of the UVM Medical Alumni Association’s A. Bradley Soule Award, which honors an alumnus/a whose loyalty and dedication to the College of Medicine most emulate those qualities found in its first recipient, A. Bradley Soule, M.D.’28. A member of the UVM Foundation Leadership Council, and past member of the UVM Medical Alumni Association’s Alumni Executive Committee, in 1966 she became the first-ever recipient of the UVM Medical Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Noonan was given the Helen B. Fraser Award from the Kentucky Public Health Association, was named one of the Best Women Doctors in America by Harper’s Bazaar, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Best Doctors in America. She was named the “Gifted Educator” for 2014 by the American College of Cardiology, given to an individual who has demonstrated innovative, outstanding teaching characteristics that contribute significantly to the field of cardiovascular medicine.
Distinguished Service Award
2015 University of Vermont Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award
to A. John Bramley and Janet A. Bramley, G’95, PhD’99
A. John Bramley served as interim president of The University of Vermont from July 2011 to July 2012. Janet A. Bramley is a UVM alumna, having received her M.A. and Ph.D. from UVM in psychology. John Bramley was born and educated in the United Kingdom. He graduated B.Sc. in microbiology from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1971 and completed his Ph.D. in Veterinary Microbiology at the University of Reading in 1975. Janet Bramley also earned her bachelor’s from the University of Newcastle in 1971. Between 1975 and 1985 John was a research scientist at the National Institute for Research in Dairying, Shinfield, UK, becoming an internationally-recognized authority on bovine mastitis. In 1985, he moved to the Institute for Animal Health in Compton, UK, where he led a large multi-disciplinary research group and the Division of Environmental Science. Since their arrival in Vermont in 1990, John and Janet Bramley have rendered long and distinguished service to the University and the state of Vermont. John’s service at the University of Vermont has included that of chair of the Department of Animal Sciences, director of the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station, dean of the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, provost and senior vice president, and acting president of the University. From 2007 to 2011 he was president and CEO of the Windham Foundation, the largest private foundation registered in Vermont. Janet’s community commitment has included her work with the Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living and service with multiple community organizations including service on the Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s Governing Board of Directors.
2015 University of Vermont Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award
to Robert F. Cioffi ’90, New Canaan, Conn.
Robert F. Cioffi is a native Vermonter from St. Albans who has served the University of Vermont in numerous capacities, beginning as a student. He served as a UVM student trustee from 1988 to 1990, was elected a trustee in 2002 and 2008, and served as chairman of the Board of Trustees from 2010 to 2014. Since graduating from UVM in 1990 with a B.A. in political science and a minor in economics, he has been an active and engaged alumnus. In addition to his work on the Board of Trustees, he has served on the UVM Foundation Board of Directors, UVM Foundation Leadership Council, National Campaign Steering Committee, and numerous UVM Alumni Association committees and initiatives. Cioffi received the F.T. Kidder medal in 1990, given to the senior male ranking first on leadership, scholarship, and character. As a student, he was admitted to the Boulder Society, which recognizes senior men who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, scholarship, and service to the University and surrounding community. He was given the UVM Alumni Association’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 1996. Currently a venture partner at Alerion Partners, a private equity fund located in Rowayton, Connecticut, Cioffi lives in New Canaan, Conn. with his wife Meghan (UVM Class of 1991) and their three children. Before joining Alerion, Cioffi was a senior vice president with GE Equity, a subsidiary of GE Capital Corporation. He worked for the Franklin County Industrial Development Corp. and on the staff of former U.S. Senator James Jeffords after graduating from UVM. He moved to New York to work at the Chase Manhattan Bank and joined GE Equity in 1998, the year he received his M.B.A. from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award
2015 George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award to Barry Guitar, Milton, Vt.
Barry Guitar came to the University of Vermont as an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders in 1976. He was named associate professor in 1979 and full professor in 1986. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College in 1966, his master’s from Western Michigan University in 1967, and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin- Madison in 1974. Barry teaches and supervises clinical work in stuttering. His research interests include treatment for preschool children who stutter and treatment outcomes in children and adults. He is an expert in a stuttering treatment program for children called the Lidcombe method, which involves parents monitoring a child’s speech, offering praise of fluent speech and feedback on stuttered speech. In his courses on speech science, he experiments with a variety of teaching approaches to help students develop a life-long habit of critical thinking and find their own best ways of learning. With 25 years of funding from foundations and federal agencies including the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, more than 60 published papers, and a fifth edition of his widely used college textbook, Stuttering: An Integrated Approach to Its Nature and Treatment, soon to be published, Barry, who conquered a stutter himself, is one of the field’s most respected scholars. In addition to his selection for the Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award, he is an elected fellow of American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, a past recipient of UVM’s Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Excellence in Teaching, and received the Carnegie Foundation Award for Vermont Teacher of the Year in 1995.
About the Alumni Awards The Alumni Distinguished Service Award has been awarded since 1958 to volunteer alumni leaders whose service to the University of Vermont and the Alumni Association has enhanced the reputation and furthered the mission of the university. The Alumni Achievement Award has been awarded to alumni since 1985 for outstanding achievement that has been recognized at the local, state, and/or national level. The Young Alumni Award has been awarded since 1979 to alumni who graduated within the past ten years for volunteer service to the University of Vermont and to the Alumni Association, and for commitment to furthering the mission of the University. The George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award was established by the UVM Alumni Association in 1974 to honor excellence in teaching. It is given annually to a faculty member nominated by alumni, students, faculty, and staff for significant contributions to the broadening of students' academic experience and the enrichment of campus life. The award is named in honor of the late Dean Emeritus George V. Kidder '22, who served the University of Vermont for more than seventy years.