Tri-C Famous

Tri-C Famous: Joe Koch

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.Joe Koch joined the Tri-C family nine years ago as an assistant professor of biology. He teaches labs and lectures at the Western Campus, where he also serves as faculty counterparts chair. Learn more about Joe ─ including how he builds mental and physical endurance ─ in this week’s Tri-C Famous.1. Tell us... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Jillian DeLong

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.Jillian DeLong manages college assets and mailroom operations from her office at Tri-C’s District Administrative Services building in downtown Cleveland. As part of the College’s Capital and Construction team, she tracks all equipment, furniture and other assets and oversees the mailroom crew. In 2019, she won a... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Tim Davis

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.Tim Davis joined Tri-C as an internal auditor in July 2015 before becoming an ERP solutions specialist in the IT Services department. He and his three teammates work on projects related to Banner, the system that houses all financial, student and employee information at the College. Learn more about Tim — including the daring way... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Karah Vance

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.Karah Vance joined Tri-C in 2013 as an office assistant in the Creative Arts Center of Excellence. With an initial focus on recruitment, her role soon expanded to include supporting the College’s Creative Arts Academy. Today, as coordinator for the academy, she assists with music, dance and media arts programming for youth ages 3... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Ky-wai Wong

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.Ky-wai Wong joined Tri-C in 2011 as an adjunct faculty member in the Hospitality Management program. Now a tenured assistant professor, he mainly teaches hands-on kitchen laboratory classes. His background in fine dining includes stints at Blake’s Seafood Grille, fire food and drink, LockKeepers and Park City Diner. Learn more... Read More

Tri-C Famous: James Gardner Jr.

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.James Gardner Jr. is interim director of Student Life, Athletics and Recreation at the Metropolitan Campus. A member of the Tri-C family since November 2008, he’s also served as a financial aid adviser, recruiter and student success specialist. One of his most recent projects has been launching the new Metro Food Pantry. Learn... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Sara Fuller

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.Sara Fuller joined Tri-C in spring 2014 as an adjunct instructor and later became an assistant professor of English at the College’s Westshore Campus. She also serves as faculty development coordinator for the campus. Learn more about Sara — including why you might occasionally hear her scream during a virtual meeting... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Kate Vodicka

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.Kate Vodicka’s Tri-C story started in high school as a summer jazz camp participant. Her talents as a bass guitarist were even recognized at Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland. Now she’s the assistant dean of counseling, psychological and student accessibility services at Tri-C’s Eastern Campus. Her passion is helping... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Jacques Smith

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.Jacques Smith joined Tri-C nearly 22 years ago as a community outreach liaison. He now serves as program manager for the College’s Black American Council, overseeing the mentoring program and other initiatives that increase opportunities for success and retention, particularly among Black students. Learn more about Jacques,... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Catherine Rokicky

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.Catherine Rokicky has taught history at Tri-C’s Western Campus since 1992. Now a full-time tenured professor, she teaches courses in national, state and city history in addition to Latin American, Native American, African American and women’s history courses. When she’s not in the classroom, she loves to spend... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Stephanie Metzger

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.  Stephanie Metzger joined Tri-C’s Integrated Communications department in 2020 as social media manager, responsible for generating and posting content to the College’s social media pages. She previously spent four years as a digital and social producer at WKYC-TV, where she was part of a mobile team that... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Brigitte Matchett

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.  Brigitte Matchett is administrative assistant to the Tri-C Western Campus president. She joined the College’s Health Careers department in 2018 before assuming her current role where, among other duties, she has the important task of managing the campus budget. But Brigitte is not only good with numbers —... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Eric Kuentz

 #TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.  Eric Kuentz is an integration technician in the Eastern Campus Learning Commons. He joined Tri-C’s Media Services department in 2003, bringing several years of award-winning video production experience from his alma mater, the University of Mount Union. Today he designs, installs and maintains AV systems on... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Marquita Rockamore

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.  Marquita Rockamore is the director of Health Industry Solutions at Tri-C’s Corporate College®. She has been involved in workforce development for 20 years — nine of them with the College’s Workforce, Community and Economic Development division. She loves helping businesses develop... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Judy Karpowicz

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.  Judy Karpowicz has served Tri-C’s Human Resources department in various capacities since 1997. As the College’s Talent and Organizational Development specialist, she helps plan employee events, oversees the Mandel Leadership Development program, participates in employee onboarding and delivers training for... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Emma Tidball

Emma Tidball works in the office of Karen Miller, Tri-C’s provost and executive vice president of Access, Learning and Success. She’s spent more than a decade supporting College leadership at the District office in downtown Cleveland. With a juris doctorate and more than one master’s degree to her name, there’s much more to this administrative powerhouse than meets the eye. Learn about Emma — aka “Human Google” —... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Lisa Friel

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.  Lisa Friel is an assistant professor of English as a Second Language at Tri-C’s Westshore Campus. She particularly enjoys teaching writing, and she helps student share their work with a wider audience as an editor for the College’s annual ESL Voices publication. In addition to teaching, she organizes... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Heather Young Mandujano

Heather Young Mandujano is an instructional technologist in the Center for Learning Excellence at Tri-C’s Eastern Campus. She helps faculty select and implement technology tools for their courses, and she collaborates with them to create instructional materials such as videos and interactive lessons. Check out Heather and her husband, Eduardo, on their YouTube channel, Flutey and the Beast, where they perform songs by Paula Abdul, Justin Timberlake and more … as flute... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Jeremy Cubranich

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.  Jeremy Cubranich is the quality assurance and compliance manager in Tri-C’s Student Financial Aid department. In simple terms, he makes sure that new financial aid regulations are implemented “as painlessly as possible.” He’s also the department’s interim director. Learn about... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Christine Hickey

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.  Christine Hickey joined Tri-C 22 years ago as a part-time assistant in the College’s Video Production department. Today, as manager of Television and Video Services, she leads an AV crew that produces virtual events College-wide. Christine describes herself as a happy person with the ability to find humor in most... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Sarah Baldwin

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.  Sarah Baldwin is the recruitment specialist for Tri-C’s Hospitality Management Center of Excellence. As the self-described “Get-you-in-the-door Lady,” she speaks about the College’s hospitality programs to various audiences and guides prospective students through the enrollment... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Aaron Milenski

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.  Aaron Milenski is a research analyst in the Office of Evidence and Inquiry at Tri-C’s District Office. For the past 19 years, he has provided College data for use by faculty, staff, students and various government agencies. But that’s just his day job. Discover Aaron’s true legacy and his idea of a... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Sonja Elekhtaby

Sonja Elekhtaby is the adjunct services manager at Tri-C’s Eastern Campus. She joined the College in 2010 as administrative secretary for the Creative Arts department, which — given her childhood stint as an aspiring violinist — seems perfectly appropriate. Read on to learn more about Sonja and her somewhat exotic taste in pets.  Tell us a funny story from your youth. Everybody was in the band or took some sort of music lessons in elementary school.... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Becky Wiggins

Becky Wiggins manages Tri-C’s new online Associate of Arts program. In her eight years at the College, she has worked for Finance and Business Services and the Eastern Campus President’s Office, as well as in curriculum development. A calm and orderly person on the outside, Becky’s taste for adventure might come as a surprise to some of her coworkers. Read on to learn about the trip that whet her appetite for exploration — both with and without her... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Alan Gerding

Alan Gerding has been involved with the College in one way or another for most of his life. As a child, he attended preschool at Tri-C and often accompanied his mother, a biology professor, to her classroom at Western Campus. At age 15, he was hired as a lifeguard — a job he worked for five years while completing his own associate degree. Today, Alan is an assistant professor of psychology at Tri-C’s Metropolitan Campus.  Tell us about one of your hobbies. My... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Ashley Speaker

Ashley Speaker is coordinator of open enrollment programs at Tri-C’s Corporate College®. Her responsibilities include supporting the Encore 55+ Learning program for older adults, for which she has also served as an instructor. One of her courses, “Victorian Troublemakers,” was about women reformers. Read on to find out what else this self-proclaimed “history nerd” is into.  What’s your favorite international... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Monica Starks

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.  Monica Starks joined Tri-C as an assessment technician in 1995 before becoming an educator. Now a sociology lecturer based at Westshore Campus, her courses cover topics including death and dying, family, gender, and race and ethnicity. She’s taught at least one semester at each of Tri-C’s four... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Holly Dufala

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.  Holly Dufala works at the College’s District Administrative Services building. As supervisor of Hospitality Services and Retail Operations, one of her duties is managing Indians, Cavs and concert parking at the District Garage. Her husband, Marty, is a maintenance mechanic at Tri-C’s Metro... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Ormond Brathwaite

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus.  Ormond Brathwaite serves as associate dean of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at the Western Campus. He holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the City University of New York. On weekends, you can often find him playing lawn tennis with his favorite opponent ― renowned psychologist Dr. Howard... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Chris Faciana

#TriCFamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus. Chris Faciana is the program manager for Sport and Exercise Studies at the Eastern Campus. He also serves as an advisor for Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society’s Alpha Epsilon Eta chapter. You may recognize him (and his toddler son) from a recent Fox 8 segment in which he demonstrated ideas for staying fit while staying... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Jennifer Davis

#TriCfamous is a bimonthly feature that introduces readers to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus. Jennifer Davis has held various positions over her 20 years at Tri-C. Her cheerful personality and affinity for the adventurous make her the perfect person to serve as student activities director at the Metropolitan Campus. Tell us about the most daring thing you’ve ever done. I went on the trip of a lifetime in July 2019... Read More

Tri-C Famous: Beth Cieslik

Tri-C employees are all about helping students succeed. But have you ever wondered what they do when they’re not at work? Tri-C Famous is a new feature that introduces you to the people who make the College work while providing a sneak peek into their lives off campus. For the first installment, I decided to share a little bit about the Tri-C employee I know best: Me! Beth Cieslik is an editorial/SEO specialist in Tri-C’s Integrated Communications department.... Read More