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Chagrin Falls Alumni Association

Keeping Tiger Pride Alive

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Dr. Lisa Kroon

Class of 1988

Dr. Lisa Kroon is Chair of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of California San Francisco.  In 2020, Lisa was appointed the Assistant Chief Pharmacy Officer for Research, Education, and Clinical Services for the UCSF Health Pharmacy Enterprise.  She practices in the UCSF Medical Center’s Adult Diabetes Clinic and Diabetes Teaching Center, where she cares for people with diabetes and chronic illnesses. She co-directs the Fontana Tobacco Treatment Center.  Her research and practice efforts focus on evaluating the impact of pharmacist provider status and expanded scope of practice, diabetes therapeutics, tobacco cessation, and innovative practice models in the ambulatory and community pharmacy setting.  Lisa has received multiple awards including the prestigious “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” from the UCSF Pharmacy Class of 2012 and the 2019 Pharmacist of the Year by the  California Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

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Kevin Ryan

Class of 1981

Kevin Ryan is one of the leading Internet entrepreneurs in New York, having founded and is Chairman of several businesses, including AlleyCorp, Zola and Nomad Health.  Previously he founded and was Chairman of MongoDB, Business Insider and GILT.  Previously, Kevin helped build DoubleClick from 1996 to 2005, first as President and later as CEO.  In 2013, Kevin was named one of “The 100 Most Influential New Yorkers of the Past 25 Years” by the Observer.  Aside from his professional responsibilities, Kevin serves on the board of Mercy Corps, is Vice Chairman of The Partnership for New York City, is a member of the CFR Committee on Foreign Affairs, is on the Board of TECH:NYC and is Director Emeritus for Human Right Watch.  He previously served on the boards of Yale Corporation, INSEAD, the Direct Marketing Association, The Ad Council, HotJobs and the advisory board of Doctors Without Borders.

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Dr. Eric Pamer

Class of 1973

Dr. Eric “Rick” Pamer is an infectious diseases expert and currently the Faculty Director of the Duchossois Family Institute at the University of Chicago where he is a professor in the Departments of Medicine, Microbiology, and Pathology.  As a physician and scientist, Rick specializes in immune defense against infections associated with cancer treatment and whose research focuses on the microbiome’s impact on resistance to a wide range of microbial pathogens.  The institute is dedicated to investigating and developing new knowledge about the human biological defense systems, including the microbiome, and their therapeutic and commercial potential for preventing disease and maintaining lifelong wellness.  He came to Chicago from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where he has served as head of the Division of Subspecialty Medicine since 2011 and director of the Lucille Castori Center for Microbes, Inflammation and Cancer since 2010. He joined Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2000 as chief of infectious diseases and has served as professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine since 2001. Prior to his tenure in New York, he worked at Yale University from 1992 to 2000 as an assistant and associate professor of infectious diseases and immunobiology.

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Rob Crombie

Class of 1970

Selected by his classmates as “Most Artistic,” it is not a surprise that Rob Crombie has become one of the most sought after oil painters in our region.  However, Rob took a break from the brush for nearly 30 years for a career in the print world and to raise a family.  Once he returned to his passion, he would find joy and an opportunity to give back.  He travels quite a bit to small villages in France for inspiration.   His work is on display in Cleveland, St Remy France, South Carolina as well as in Summer shows around the region. While garnering success as an artist, Rob has gone above and beyond to open the world of art to adults and children throughout Northeast Ohio. He is a popular instructor at the Valley Art Center and gives considerable time to art groups as well as students in public schools to support their efforts to learn to paint.  Rob has also made it a priority to work in our most underserved schools in Cleveland and Akron where children may be most inspired and helped.

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Dr. Bill Albers

Class of 1970

Dr. Bill Albers was an orthopaedic surgeon for over 30 years.  For 23 years he had a private practice in Lynchburg, Virginia.  During that period, Bill volunteered as a coach in both basketball and softball at his daughter’s school, Holy Cross Regional School.  The school earned three state titles in girls’ basketball and four in softball.  Bill was voted the “State Coach of the Year” on three occasions and the school would later name their athletic field area, “William E. Albers Field.”  For nearly a decade, he successfully juggled a number of roles when he and his wife moved to Tennessee where he joined Campbell Clinic Orthopaedics.  In addition to his work as a surgeon, he wrote three chapters in what is regarded as the preeminent text on orthopaedic surgery, Campbell’s Operative Orthopaedics.  Bill also taught 2nd year residents trauma surgery at the University of Tennessee Methodist Hospital and was voted as the “Teacher of the Year” by the residents.

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Paul DeSantis

Class of 1962

Paul enjoyed a 51 year career with TRW with the last 25 of those years working as the Design Engineering Manager.  His engineering experience in nuclear and aerospace industries focused primarily on product development. His concentration was exclusively on control rod drive mechanisms for both naval and commercial applications. Paul was at the forefront of being a “super-user” for CAD designs, Finite Element structural evaluations and computer usage in general.  During his early years with TRW he worked on various Aerospace projects including designing an auxiliary power unit for NASA’s Lunar Excursion Module (Lunar Lander). He had many interesting trips to study the interface of the power unit with the actual Lunar Module hardware, including a visit to Mission Control at NASA Houston and Grumman Aircraft. It was a real experience actually for Paul to climb around on Lunar Modules that would ultimately land on the Moon. For most of his career, he worked on the design of Nuclear reactor control systems, mostly for the Navy nuclear fleet.  He prepared thousands of pages of technical reports with detailed design and analysis studies. His intricate designs and manufactured products are still used today in every Naval Nuclear submarine, destroyer and aircraft carrier. Paul has seven patents to his name on the mPower Modular Reactor project.

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John Bourisseau

Class of 1964

Community Service Award Honoree

John’s first career was as an educator.  He taught 1st grade at Orange, worked as a school psychologist for the East Shore Regional Resource Center and for 20 years, was a school psychologist for Mayfield Schools.  For 6 years he taught a course for CSU entitled, Working With Parents of Exceptional Children.His second career was as a volunteer.  For 15 years John was active as a trustee for the CFHS Alumni Association serving on the Scholarship and Athletic HOF committees.  For many years he chaired the Athletic HOF and was Master of Ceremonies at the Banquet. John was inducted into the Athletic HOF in 2013 with his teammates who never lost a football game throughout their 4 years of high school.  John and his wife Mary, have participated in 25 summer work camps with the Federated Church youth group—most recently in Puerto Rico. For many years John helped Mary run the youth lacrosse program expanding it from a 7th and 8th grade program down to the 3rd and 4th grades. John served as the President of the Cleveland BoyChoir for four years.  John was selected as the Chagrin Valley Jaycees citizen of the year in 2017, has been President of the Chagrin Falls Historical Society Board of Trustees for 10 years, the emcee for the Alumni Choir Memorial Day concert, the Village of Chagrin Falls 4th of July celebration and is the Judge Advocate General for Chagrin Falls American Legion Post 383, where he has the privilege of being the Master of Ceremony for Memorial Day services at the cemetery.  John was a member of the Bentleyville Village Council for 10 years, serving four years as president. John also was an active participant in the Win-Win campaign.

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Kathy Keeler

Class of 1965

Kathy Keeler ‘65 had an illustrious career as a Professor of the School of Life Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and since has maintained her passion as a plant expert in a variety of pursuits.  Her specialties range from ant-plant interactions to grass genetics to studies of prairie plants.  In the 1980’s she was at the forefront in contributing to the analysis of genetically-engineered organisms.  Kathy wrote analytical pieces and used summaries in the literature to bring existing information to bear on the emerging field.   At that time, she also pioneered a flow cytometry technique that has now become the standard. Flow cytometry is the staining of a cell for a particular compound and passing individual cells in front of a laser that measured the stained material.  In the classroom, Kathy taught everything from general biology to advanced evolution for new graduate students, with the courses centering around ecology and evolution. Her career as a professor spanned over 30 years and for the first decade she was the only woman professor in her department of over thirty individuals.  In 2013 she was frustrated that the great stories of plants she saw traveling, of frangipani, bougainvillea, mountain ash (a giant eucalyptus), weren’t easy to find. The result was Kathy beginning the blog, A Wandering Botanist. It allows her to write about plants as entertainment—odd biology, curious folklore, largely-forgotten stories of their role in history. This has led to speaking in Colorado and sometimes on tours, and books that relate those stories on paper.  Since her retirement as a professor, she still continues to write and has recently published three books: Curious Stories of Familiar Garden Plants, Curious Stories of Plants from Around the World and NoCo Notables: 15 Northern Colorado Plants Worth Knowing based mainly on the blog.

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Lisa Gorretta

Class of 1972

Lisa has had a successful career as a businesswoman, entrepreneur, consultant, professor, president, and official to name a few. Upon graduation from OSU Lisa went to work for the family manufacturing company.  They added a horse products division to Gorretta Machine and Mfg Company called “Paddock Products” that designed, produced and marketed stable equipment. When the company was sold Lisa started a tack shop in all products for the Sport Horse enthusiast. It was nationally recognized as one of the top 100 tack shops in the US. After selling that business, she started her consulting firm, The Paddock Group LLC, specializing in equestrian based businesses. She specializes in equestrian retail but also works with startup companies bringing new products to the market.  Lisa does some career coaching for young professionals finding their pathway as trainers, instructors or officials. She has served as an Entrepreneur in Residence and as an Adjunct Professor teaching Management of Equestrian Activities for Lake Erie College.  Another important aspect of her career is that of show official in the sport of Equestrian. She has been a Technical Delegate for the United States Equestrian Federation for the Dressage discipline for over 35 years. She is considered an expert, nationally and internationally, in equipment and rules and regularly conducts continuing education forums for dressage judges and technical delegates on competition rules, equipment and professional conduct, ensuring that competitions are run in compliance with current rules, thus providing a level playing field for all competitors, with the welfare of the human and equine participants considered at all times.  She has officiated at several major international competitions, notably serving as the assistant Chief Steward for the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada and the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. Lisa is also an active volunteer in sport governance, serving as Co-Chair of the Dressage Sport Committee and as a member of the Board of Directors for the US Equestrian Federation. She serves currently as the President of the United States Dressage Federation, a 33,000 member non-profit organization based at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington Kentucky and dedicated to the sport of Dressage and the recognition of the achievements of its members. She is the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the US Dressage Finals, a national head-to-head dressage competition for Adult Amateur and Professional competitors.

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Dave Mullins

Class of 1989

The norm is neither for a Chagrin student to play in a punk band nor ascend to be an Oscar nominated director, but Dave Mullins has done both and has had success throughout his career.  Leaving Chagrin and his punk rock band Roygbiv, Dave set off to obtain a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design. He would jump right in as an animator at such studios as Walt Disney Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and MGM.  He would make his way over to Pixar and work on such films as Monsters Incorporated, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Inside Out, Coco, Cars 3, Mater and the Ghostlight, Brave, and Finding Nemo. He worked his way up to Directing Animator for the film Up and Animation Supervisor for Cars 2, The Good Dinosaur, and Incredibles 2.  The Pixar team has won numerous awards on these films and Dave would see his greatest individual success as the writer and director of the 2018 Oscar Nominated Short Film LOU.  In addition, Dave spends a lot of time teaching animation and filmmaking at the California Institute of the Arts, Academy of Art San Francisco, Animation Mentor and Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Games and Animation to name a few.

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RICHARD W. EVANS

Chagrin Falls Alumni Hall of Fame
Class of 1951

Owner of Evans Printing Company for 26 years, Dick’s talents and altruistic endeavors have been duly recognized by the communities in which he lived and worked. In 1968, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Chagrin Valley Jaycees. Sun Newspapers selected him as “Citizen of the Year” for Solon in 1992, the same year he was named to the Solon Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame. Numerous paper companies have presented him awards of excellence in printed communication. Dick was president of the Chagrin Valley Chamber of Commerce in 1967 and in 1994. He is a life member of several local organizations including the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, Valley Art Center and the Chagrin Falls Historical Society.

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JOEL M. JONES

Chagrin Falls Alumni Hall of Fame
Class of 1955

Joel’s splendid academic performance at Chagrin Falls High School was but an early chapter in a life replete with scholastic achievement. Since 1988, he has been president of Fort Lewis College, the public liberal arts college for Colorado. For the previous 19 years, he was a professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico, where he received his Ph.D. in 1966. He earned his B.A. from Yale University in 1960 and his M.A. from Miami of Ohio in 1962. Dr. Jones has published more than 50 scholarly articles, chapters of books, and reviews covering such topics as American social/ intellectual history, environmental studies and cultural diversity. In 1972, he received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Educational Press Association of America.

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PETER VAN NORT

Chagrin Falls Alumni Hall of Fame
Class of 1955

An outstanding student and all-around athlete at Chagrin Falls High School and in college, Peter is currently the president and chief operating officer of H. B. Zachry Company, an $800 million a year construction and maintenance company in San Antonio, Texas. He was graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1959. As a junior there, he completed the year as the top academic performer in a class of 850. As a senior, he was selected to be Brigade Commander, the highest ranking student military position. Peter was the first person in the history of Navy to be commissioned into the Engineering Duty Corp directly from the Naval Academy. Early in his career, he worked with Admiral H. G. Rickover, managing the application of nuclear power in ships.

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DONALD R. SCHREGARDUS

Chagrin Falls Alumni Hall of Fame
Class of 1968

It is only natural that playing along the Chagrin River and mixing chemicals in Neal Wheatcraft’s chemistry class are among Don’s fondest memories of his old hometown. In 1991, this former Eagle Scout was named director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency by Governor George V. Voinovich. As the top ranking EPA officer in the state, Don administers all laws and regulations dealing with environmental protection. He manages an agency of 1100 employees and a $70 million per year budget. Don has earned several prestigious awards for his work including the U.S. EPA Bronze Medal in 1989 and the EPA Superior Performance Award in 1976, 1982, 1983 and 1988.

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ROBERT J. HARMON

Chagrin Falls Alumni Hall of Fame
Class of 1964

Bob credits his former teachers in Chagrin Falls for giving him the foundation from which to launch a successful career in medicine. In addition to his current appointment as Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Dr. Harmon heads the Division of Child Psychiatry there and is Director of the Infant Psychiatry Program. He has been the recipient of a Research Scientist Development Award and serves on the editorial board of several journals including the Infant Mental Health Journal, of which he is Associate Editor. Dr. Harmon is a lecturer on infants and family and has authored or co-authored more than 80 publications. He was recently elected to the Governing Council of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,

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If you have an updated address, phone number, or email, then please include that in the message area below.

    Contact Info:

    alumni@chagrinschools.org

    440.247.4387

     


    CFAA Alumni Director:

    Brian McKenna '88

    Office Manager:

    Jana Young ‘82

    Find Us:

    Chagrin Falls Alumni Association

    400 East Washington Street
    Chagrin Falls, OH 44022

    We invite you to join the growing numbers of volunteers who are helping to ensure a bright future for the CFAA and Chagrin Falls Schools. Whether it is through your time or resources, all of us appreciate your generous gifts. To become more involved, contact the Alumni Association. We look forward to your comments, questions, and suggestions. Don’t forget that we appreciate your help in making the CFAA run successfully with the donation of your annual dues of $20 or more.