Frances Cicero LaPlaca ’60 infuses her classroom and studio with grace and love.   by Anne Ryan

She was a second grader in Albany when she fell in love with the piano, but Fran Cicero’s Italian immigrant parents could not afford to buy her one. Three years later they presented her with a second-hand piano...

Paul Fields ’79 uses his food-business savvy to nurture a nonprofit that feeds thousands.    by Erika Spaet ’09

Paul Fields was hungry. After graduating from IC, the Scarsdale, New York, native found himself in the dog-eat-dog world of business. He was enormously successful at an early age, but he craved...

The chair of the Campaign for Ithaca College gives his all — and then some.    by Kate Larrabee

“My wife sometimes wonders who I actually work for,” says Larry Alleva — and he’s only half joking. Alleva has spent 19 years, in total, on the Ithaca College Board of Trustees. Before...

Tuti Scott ’84 leads with a winning combination of broad outlook and team spirit.   by Kate Larrabee

I built my own curriculum,” says Tuti Scott. That is something many Ithaca College students have done: designed their own degrees as planned studies majors. Often, like Scott, they find a new passion once...

Sally Jane Ketcham Tanzer ’70  honors the teachers of whom she thought the world. by Kate Larrabee

Sally Jane Ketcham Tanzer says the strong reputation of Ithaca’s music education program preceded her when it came time to interview for teaching positions. “Ithaca really prepared me to walk into an...

Allan Miller, M.S. ’97, joins an NSF expedition to Antarctica as a research fellow and education consultant.    by Alex Meril ’07

For some people, exploration is just a hobby. For Allan Miller, M.S ’97, it’s a lifelong passion. He’s a licensed pilot. In 2003 he was a finalist to become an...

Tom Everett is grateful for his life in music — as are his listeners.    by Kathryn Good-Schiff

Tom Everett feels about his job the way everybody wants to feel about theirs: “I do what I love to do,” he says. As Harvard University’s director of bands since 1971 and founder of its jazz...

The dancer-actor now helps set bodies straight.     by Jeff Candura ’01

Katie Adams likes to think of herself as a bit of a detective. But instead of hunting down criminals, she hunts down pain. Katie is the owner and founder of 360 Neuro Muscular Therapy (360 NMT) in Needham, Massachusetts. NMT is...

In a field dominated by men, this sports journalist is a role model for young women.   by Jeff Candura ’01

Marcia Neville’s love affair with sports began simply, sitting on the couch as a child watching teams battle it out on television. It wasn’t her father who cheered on the team with her and taught...

Ben Gruber is turning silliness into success.    by George Sapio

Not many new college graduates can boast a corner office in New York City’s famed Chrysler Building. But that’s what happened to Ben Gruber ’94, who, just one year after graduating, found himself deep in the heart of the Big Apple working...

Scenes from my work documenting a program that helps once-reclusive Maasai women.
by Jenny Rizzo ’01

The drive seemed endless in an aging four-wheeler with no windowpanes or seatbelts. The red East African earth formed a gritty coating on my skin and teeth. After three hours our driver slowed to a stop under a tree...

Retired alumnus continues to make important contributions to the wind band repertoire.
by Julie Waters, M.M. ’91

When band director Gregory B. Rudgers ’70 stumbled across a recording in the stacks of his band room in 1976, he couldn’t have known that it would lead him to make a significant contribution to ...

From professional athlete to the Catholic priesthood.   by Sheryl A. Englund

When the IC football team took the 1991 Division III national title in the championship game against the University of Dayton, quarterback Joe Fitzgerald ’93 was in seventh heaven. Joe remembers with relish, too, standing shoulder-to-shoulder...

Cynthia Sayer ’77 has a most unusual profession—jazz banjoist
by Elizabeth Bauchner

Ask Cynthia Sayer what has been the greatest source of pride in her musical career, and she won’t mention playing for two presidents, her long membership in the Woody Allen Jazz Band, her collaboration with several...

A 1970s-era Ithaca couple sets benchmarks for community involvement. by Elizabeth Field with Maura Stephens

When it comes to fund-raising, Jerry Dietz ’75 and Judy Schapiro Dietz ’76 acknowledge, potential donors must first understand an issue, and then feel it in their hearts. Only then will they be willing to reach...

CEO David Lissy ’87 has a lot to do with why Bright Horizons is friendly to families, clients, investors, and employees.  by Tamar Morad

When talking about the hundreds of child care centers he runs in the United States and abroad, Dave Lissy is as enthusiastic as one of his clients’ tots who has just been set loose in...

Successful novelist Julia Spencer-Fleming ’83 writes what she knows, with a twist. by Alex Meril ’07

Mystery novelist Julia Spencer-Fleming ’83 is a bit odd among authors: she didn’t always harbor a burning desire to write. At IC she tested out of her writing requirement, and in four years she...

Judy Mauk '69 and her son Ryan Mauk '06 take a dream-come-true trek to Everest.

In spring 2005 my son Ryan, then a junior television-radio major at IC, spent his semester abroad in Nepal attending an SIT (Student International Training) program. After completing the semester he spent a month trekking around the region. He visited...

As an Ithaca High School lineman he tackled running back Ernie Davis (who went on to become a Syracuse all-American and the first African American to win the Heisman trophy). At IC, where he majored in physical education, he was on not only the football team but the wrestling team as well. All along he had one career goal in mind: to be a coach.

Ed Michael...

Bob Iger ’73, president and chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Company, was honored as MarketWatch CEO of the Year.

In October 2005 Bob succeeded Michael Eisner as the sixth CEO in the 83-year history of Disney. He has served on the Ithaca College Board of Trustees and is currently an honorary member as well as honorary chair of the Campaign...

Andy McGuffin '51 would be an impressive athlete at half his age.  by Alex Meril ’07

A mile-long walk in the neighborhood, 50 push-ups, basketball practice at the local YMCA, a five-mile bicycle ride, and 200 sit-ups before bed may seem like an extraordinary exercise regimen for even the most hardened athlete, but for...

Potter Eric Serritella '85 left corporate America behind to make unique art.
by Khrista Trerotola ’07

Eric Serritella ’85 used to wear suits and suspenders to work; he would travel overseas several times a year and lunch on salmon paté. Today he wears clay-stained T-shirts and jeans to work, commutes six steps to his...

Therese Forton-Barnes '85 salvages the corpses of storm-ravaged trees to inspire new public art.
by Zeke Wright '07

It was peak season for watching autumn leaves in upstate New York. But on October 13, 2006, a freak snowstorm blanketed the Buffalo area with nearly two feet of snow. The still-leafy trees were particularly...

Gino Bona '95 dreams up a winning Super Bowl ad.

Coworkers of Gino Bona ’95 describe him as “fearless,” “tenacious,” and “audacious.” Gino once landed a job with ESPN.com by sending a T-shirt with his face on it to the site’s editor. Once he flew 3,000 miles to deliver someone a pizza. And this...

Onetime biology major Leonisa Ardizzone '90 is now an educator, musician, and author.   by Anne Ryan

When you mix equal parts educator, leader, author, and jazz singer, whom do you get? Leonisa Ardizzone. The executive director of the Salvadori Center, a nonprofit education program in New York City, has written her...

A first person account by Kevin Fallon '06

March 2007

One thing that sets the Marine Corps apart from the other services is that “Every Marine is a rifleman.” Basically, it doesn’t matter if you are an adjutant, a logistician, a tanker, or even a cook; every Marine is trained and proficient in...

Kevin Greene ’06 was one of the finalists in a weeks-long on-air audition process for the lead role of Danny in the upcoming Broadway revival of Grease. NBC created a reality show, Grease: You’re the One that I Want, as a talent competition series in which the audience had input into choosing the lead male and female actors. Kevin, who graduated with a...

Glenn Beck producer Evan Cutler '86 has found success merging journalism with comedy.
by Tamar Morad

Ask Evan Cutler ’86 what he does for a living, and he answers, “I’m a journalist—well, kind of.”

He’s written for top magazines, was on the original staff at MSNBC,...