Alumni News
Lieutenant Colonel John P. Cappella Zielinski, U.S. Air Force (USAF) (MA, 1993, PhD, 1998), is the senior military assistant to the administrative assistant to the secretary of the USAF and the USAF headquarters at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. He just reached 20 years of military service and was recently selected to attend Air War College at the Maxwell Air Force Base, AL, to pursue his second master’s degree in National Security Studies. He is both a senior personnel officer and an international affairs officer – political affairs strategist. He is married to Rosella Cappella Zielinski, professor at Boston University and is the proud father of three children: Owen (20), Grace (17), and Lewis (2).
Caitlin Fallone and Keshov Sharma
Caitlin Fallone (MA, 2015) finished a two-year position working with schools in Kenya, working for Humans for Education, as their WASH program manager. Currently she works in Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester and as an adjunct instructor at St. John Fisher College teaching global health. She is also a doctoral student in human development at the University of Rochester focusing on the cultural barriers impacting adherence to treatment plans in immigrant communities of Rochester, NY. Her research interest is to use behavioral medicine as a form of preventative medicine to combat chronic disease. She lives in Rochester with her boyfriend, Keshov, and their dog (Tucker) and cat (Lemon).
Andrea K. Foster (MA, 1982) During studies: Fort Niagara (Prof. Scott and his wife, Pat), pre-historic archaeology in Genesee County, I think; into Manhattan to excavate 1740 merchant ship. Following left for Colonial Williamsburg, then DC and Ph.D. in AMCV at George Washington University. Married and settled in Germantown, MD. Raised son. Entered world of music and Jewish education. Studies in cantorate and rabbinate. Adopted name Yonina. Family life. Hiked. Kayaked. 2015 returned for 40th reunion at Amherst High. Following year husband diagnosed with Glioblastoma. Died three months later. Returned to Buffalo in 2017. Here since.
Thomas McBride (BA, 1995) is a graduate of SUNY Stony Brook’s physician assistant program and has been practicing in urology since 2002. Tom serves on the American Urological Association's Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Education Committee, Membership Committee, Annual Conference Planning Committee, and has assisted with the development of online CME modules for APPs within AUA University, as well as lecturing at the AUA National Conferences in 2017 and 2018. Tom served as vice president of the Urological Association of Physician Assistants, an officially recognized specialty organization of the American Academy of Physician Assistants. He is currently employed at the Adirondack Surgical Group in the Adirondack Park near Lake Placid, New York where he is the urology PA for two remote locations, one of them a critical access area. Tom's main foci within his practice include urodynamic testing, kidney stone disease, as well as bladder and prostate cancer treatment. Tom has experience with a wide array of office-based and procedures in urology, and has first assistant experience with general, bariatric, and cardiothoracic surgeries with Adirondack Surgical. Tom is former vice president of the Adirondack Society of Physician Assistants. He holds fellow membership with the AAPA, and Allied Health Membership with the AUA. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, enjoying the North Country's outdoor activities and dining. Recently, he watched with great pride as the UB Bulls defeated the Bowling Green Falcons at the MAC Conference Championship in Cleveland, OH.
Julie Ficarra (BA, 2010) Since graduating from UB's Anthropology program, she has received a master’s degree in international education from Harvard and a PhD in Cultural Foundations of Education from Syracuse. Her dissertation is titled, "Producing the Global Classroom: Exploring the Impacts of US Study Abroad on host communities in San Jose, Costa Rica and Florence, Italy". She has worked for the US Department of State in Washington, D.C., and Mbabane, Swaziland and more recently for the University of South Florida. She is currently the associate director of study abroad at SUNY Cortland and lives in Liverpool, NY with her husband Sam Avery (UB Class of 2010) and their son, Sullivan, who was born in September 2018.
Danielle Villata (BA, 2018) is currently in a master’s degree program for international policy and development at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Her specialization is in monitoring and evaluation. She is studying Spanish alongside her degree program.
Victor B. Stolberg (MA, 1981) is an assistant professor/counselor at Essex County College in Newark, NJ. He has authored 49 scholarly articles, 94 encyclopedia articles, six chapters and contributed papers, 63 miscellaneous publications, and two recent books: Painkillers: History, Science, and Issues and ADHD Medications: History, Science, and Issues. He has several publications currently in press, including eight entries for Encyclopedia of Sex and Sexuality: Understanding Biology, Psychology, and Culture and another book titled What You Need to Know About ADHD, coming out June 2019. Research interests include historical and cross-cultural studies of substance use and abuse, disabilities, ethnic patterns, and college student issues.
Frank A. Salamone (PhD, 1973) is retired and back in Western New York. He is currently organizing a panel with Marjorie Snipes entitled, “Fear in the Field,” for the American Association of Anthropologists annual meeting. He has two papers in press, one on the current state of Ugandan Asians and another on the Hausa states’ precolonial ties.
Roderick B. Salisbury (PhD, 2010) currently works as a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer on landscape archaeology of Central and Southern Europe at the University of Vienna. He is also co-editor of the newsletter for the European Association of Archaeologists. He lives in Vienna with his wife, a researcher group leader at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and their two sons.
Kathryn M. Glaser (PhD, 2015) is an assistant professor of Oncology in the Department of Cancer Prevention and Control at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, NY. As a medical anthropologist, she works on research toward reducing, preventing, and eliminating cancer health disparities. Her focus is health beliefs and behavior, health systems and preventative care in underserved communities, particularly immigrants and refugees.
Samantha Hens (BA, 1990) is a full professor at Sacramento State and is lead co-author on a paper published in 2019 in PLoSOne, "Iron deficiency anemia, population health and frailty in a modern Portuguese skeletal sample." This is her most recent contribution to an active research program in human skeletal biology, including recent research in sex/age estimation and population relationships in Imperial Roman populations.
Kristen McGowan (Suchor) (BA, 2001) has been employed with the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) for over 15 years and was promoted to director of affiliate groups in February 2018. NCTE is devoted to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education. She currently resides in St. Joseph, Illinois with her two sons, Ethan (9) and Tanner (7). For fun she runs and practices Tae Kwon Do, in which she earned her first degree in Black Belt in October 2018 and is currently working towards a second.
Danielle Nerber and friends.
Danielle Nerber (BA, 2018) will attend the NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine to begin her D.O. degree program in fall 2019. She plans to complete a global health concentration so she may travel to Ghana in 2020 to conduct an independent research project. Future plans include work in women and children’s health with a focus on eliminating healthcare disparities across the world. She is thankful to the department for helping to find her passion and she is excited for what is to come.
Hunter Kane (MA, 2018) is a Medical Examiner Technician with the Hennepin County Medical Examiner.