WVU Communication Studies Speed Networking Event

Homecoming 2012

Friday September 28, 2012

Small Gold Ballroom

Mountainlair

3pm

Meet our Alumni On behalf of the West Virginia University Department of Communication Studies, welcome to our first ever Speed Networking Event! Students, it is our hope that you will utilize this opportunity to network and gain information about the endless career possibilities available to communication studies graduates. We have 17 alumni present to answer real-life questions and concerns, all of whom come from varying career paths. We hope you find this experience fun and informative. You will be put into small groups and assigned to a table for a five to ten minute q-and-a session with alumni about future career paths. Like speed dating, a bell will ring and you will rotate to another table to meet with different alumni. Our alumni mentors have careers in event planning, project management, business management, public relations, human resources and more. You will have the opportunity to network and gain information about the endless career possibilities available to communication studies graduates. Please meet our alumni volunteers! They are excited and ready to share their advice and experiences with you.

Heather Fowler Jay Mason

F. Michelle Dennison Justin Southern

Ted Greener Blake Barnes

Sherry McWaters Erinn Casazza

Tammy Whitacre

Melissa Ceo Tim Povenski Kevin Herlihy

Charles Blakenbiller C’Anna Keffer

Tara Curtis Matt DiSilvio Juan D’Brot

Our Alumni Speed Networking

volunteers for Homecoming 2012 are:

Connecting People.

Creating Meaning.

Heather Fowler (B.A. 2007)

Heather is a recruiter for TRAK. The TRAK Companies provide temporary and direct-hire professional support staff to some of the most high-powered, influential organizations in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. The TRAK Companies consist of TRAK Legal, TRAK Services, and TRAK's Records and Library Division. As a recruiter at TRAK she is always seeking talented administrative professionals for current and future positions!

F. Michelle Dennison (M.A. 2011)

F. Michelle is currently a Senior Associate of Label Control for Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Her duties include submitting corrected art-work and proof bottle labels, outserts, etc. which are dispensed with Mylan medications. She attributes her Master’s degree to opening many doors for her and how without it she would not have been af-forded the chance to interview for her current job at Mylan.

Jay Mason (B.A. 2007)

Jay currently is the Project Manager at West Virginia Rural Health Research Center (RHRC) as part of the WVU Institute for Health Policy Research (WVU IHPR) He is responsible for monitoring the project life cycle including planning, timelines, resources, communication documents, status reports, assisting in the production of materials, internal allocations, and assisting with final reports.

2012 Alumni Speed Networking volunteers

Justin Southern (B.A. 1996, M.A. 2011)

Justin is currently the Communications Director for the West Virginia State Auditor. His duties include planning and coordinating public events for the State Auditor and the division directors who write, publish, and distribute media advisories and press releases, and edit print and other media for internal and external use. He directs a staff of three, which are responsible for creating and producing electronic media for WVSAO.

Ted Greener (B.A. 2008)

Ted is an Assistant Account Executive in the Public Affairs Practice at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide's Washington, D.C. office. In his current position, Ted provides account support for clients such as BP and DuPont, primarily assisting with message development and implementation, media relations and content creation. In addition, Ted provides administrative support for the Executive Vice President and National Director for Public Affairs, Brendan Daly.

Erinn Casazza (B.A. 2001, M.A. 2002)

Erinn is currently a Program Recruiter for West Virginia University Office of Extended Learning/WVU Online. Her specific areas of recruiting include the Masters in Legal Studies program, the Masters in Corporate and Organizational Communication program, and the offsite Masters in Social Work program.

Blake Barnes (B.A. 2009)

Blake is one of the Founders and is currently the Director of Business Development for Evive Station. Evive Station is the world’s first reusable bottle cleaning and refilling station. They provide free kiosks to colleges and free cleaning/fill or just fill options to students offset through targeted advertising. His focus is on attracting new schools to partner with Evive Station in order to expand their brand across the country.

Sherry McWatters (B.A. 1977)

Sherry currently works as a Regional Sales Manager for Toshiba America Information Systems TSD. She manages 40 authorized Toshiba Telecommunication dealers in nine states. She is responsible for managing their accounts with some of the following: contracts, quotas, training and application sales assistance. She also is the team leader for her internal staff where she coordinates their activities within her region with Toshiba’s dealer network.

2012 Alumni Speed Networking volunteers

Melissa Ceo (B.A. 2010, M.A. 2012)

A brand new graduate of the WVU Communication Studies MA pro-gram, Melissa is the Advertising Manager for C.A. House Music. In her role, Melissa writes and records radio commercials, works within the community to promote events and sales, and plans many events throughout her community. One of her favorite responsibilities at C.A. House Music is organizing a weekly open mic night.

Tim Povenski (B.A. 2004, M.A. 2010)

Tim is currently a Business Operations Specialist at the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute. He attributes his success to knowing how to effectively complete tasks within any type of organ-ization gained from his degrees in Communication Studies.

Tammy Whitacre (B.A. 2002, M.A. 2003)

Tammy is the Director of Development for the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center right here in Morgantown, WV. She attributes her success to the skills she learned in how to better understand people, and how to be her best self. She sees all these qualities as a necessity in the field of fundraising.

Kevin Herlihy (B.A. 2007)

Kevin recently returned from Kuwait where he was a Strategic Plan-ning Officer and Helicopter Operator for the US Army. He super-vised the daily operations of a 10-person team that analyzed, pro-cessed, and tasked over 200 weekly Air Mission requests throughout the Middle East. Kevin attributes his success in the military to the leadership and management principles and the interpersonal commu-nication skills that he obtained with his degree.

2012 Alumni Speed Networking volunteers

C’Anna Keffer (M.A. 2008)

C’Anna is an Analyst for the Law Enforcement Online (LEO) Pro-gram Management Office of the FBI-LEO program. She provides operational assistance and supports members of the LEO community and the LEO Program Management Office. LEO is used to support tactical and investigative operations, special events, send notifica-tions and alerts and provides an avenue to remotely access other law enforcement and intelligence systems and resources.

Charles Blakenbiller (B.A. 2003)

Charles is currently the Lead Scheduler on the Flint Creek Dry Flue Gas Desulferization Project at the Flint Creek Power Station in Gentry, AR. He is also the Lead Scheduler on Mitchell Dry Fly Ash Conversion Project at Mitchell Power Station in Moundsville, WV. His degree in communication has helped him all throughout his career. His communication skills help him to connect with all members of his organizations on a daily basis.

Tara Curtis (M.A. 2000)

Tara is the Director of Communications for WVU’s Alumni Association. She oversees communication initiatives for WVU's largest constituency - 185,000 alumni worldwide. In this role, she is responsible for media relations, print/electronic communication, social media and stakeholder communications. Additionally, she assists in the development, planning and implementation of on- and off-campus events for the Association.

Matt DiSilvio (B.A. 2006)

Matt is a Recruitment and Retention Specialist for MedExpress Urgent Care. He is responsible for sourcing, interviewing, and hiring mid-level providers (Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners) as well as Managers for various MedExpress Urgent Care centers. He is also responsible for the internship program at MedExpress and various other Headquarters related positions.

2012 Alumni Speed Networking volunteers

Juan D’Brot (B.A. 2005, M.A. 2006)

Juan is the Executive Director of the West Virginia Department of Education. He is responsible for developing and overseeing assessment unit projects, studies and budgets, managing the day-to-day work of the unit activities, and managing assessment development, implementation, and trainings. He also works with psychometricians to determine appropriate statistical analyses relevant to assessments and research and helps establish project budgets.

Now that you know a little about each of out alumni, go get to know them. Ask them questions and voice your concerns

about your future career paths, don’t be shy! Remember, they

were once in your shoes. Each of our alumni are eagerly wait-ing to hear your questions and share their wealth of

knowledge, experience, and wisdom.

We hope that you enjoy yourselves and we wish you the best in

your networking endeavors and your future career paths!

2012 Alumni Speed Networking volunteers

Now that you know us...

Connecting People.

Creating Meaning.

A special thanks to all of the Alumni

Mentors from our WVU Communication

Studies students!